I  i 


TITUS  LIVIUS 
From  an  engraving  in  a  seventeenth-century  edition  of  Livy's  History 


Roman   History 

By 

Titus  Livius 


Translated  by 

John  Henry  Freese,  Alfred  John  Church, 
and  William  Jackson  Brodribb 


With  a  Critical  and  Biographical  Introduction 
and  Notes  by  Duffield  Osborne 


Illustrated 


New  York 

D.  Appleton  and  Company 
1904 


COPYRIGHT,  1898, 
BY  D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY. 


URI 

5144151 


LIVY'S   HISTORY 


OF  the  lost  treasures  of  classical  literature,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  any  are  more  to  be  regretted  than  the  missing 
books  of  Livy.  That  they  existed  in  approximate  en- 
tirety down  to  the  fifth  century,  and  possibly  even  so  late 
as  the  fifteenth,  adds  to  this  regret.  At  the  same  time  it  leaves 
in  a  few  sanguine  minds  a  lingering  hope  that  some  un- 
visited  convent  or  forgotten  library  may  yet  give  to  the  world 
a  work  that  must  always  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest 
of  Roman  masterpieces.  The  story  that  the  destruction  of 
Livy  was  effected  by  order  of  Pope  Gregory  I,  on  the  score 
of  the  superstitions  contained  in  the  historian's  pages,  never 
has  been  fairly  substantiated,  and  therefore  I  prefer  to  acquit 
that  pontiff  of  the  less  pardonable  superstition  involved  in 
such  an  act  of  fanatical  vandalism.  That  the  books  preserved 
to  us  would  be  by  far  the  most  objectionable  from  Gregory's 
alleged  point  of  view  may  be  noted  for  what  it  is  worth  in 
favour  of  the  theory  of  destruction  by  chance  rather  than  by 
design. 

Here  is  the  inventory  of  what  we  have  and  of  what  we 
might  have  had.  The  entire  work  of  Livy — a  work  that  oc- 
cupied more  than  forty  years  of  his  life — was  contained  in  one 
hundred  and  forty-two  books,  which  narrated  the  history  of 
Rome,  from  the  supposed  landing  of  ^neas,  through  the  early 
years  of  the  empire  of  Augustus,  and  down  to  the  death  of 
Drusus,  B.  c.  9.  Books  I-X,  containing  the  story  of  early 
Rome  to  the  year  294  B.  c.,  the  date  of  the  final  subjugation  of 
the  Samnites  and  the  "consequent  establishment  of  the  Roman 
commonwealth  as  the  controlling  power  in  Italy,  remain  to 

iii 


iv  LIVY'S  HISTORY 

us.  These,  by  the  accepted  chronology,  represent  a  period 
of  four  hundred  and  sixty  years.  Books  XI-XX,  being  the 
second  "  decade,"  according  to  a  division  attributed  to  the 
fifth  century  of  our  era,  are  missing.  They  covered  seventy- 
five  years,  and  brought  the  narrative  down  to  the  beginning 
of  the  second  Punic  war.  Books  XXI-XLV  have  been  saved, 
though  those  of  the  fifth  "  decade  "  are  imperfect.  They  close 
with  the  triumph  of  ^Emilius,  in  167  B.  c.,  and  the  reduction  of 
Macedonia  to  a  Roman  province.  Of  the  other  books,  only 
a  few  fragments  remain,  the  most  interesting  of  which  (from 
Book  CXX)  recounts  the  death  of  Cicero,  and  gives  what 
appears  to  be  a  very  just  estimate  of  his  character.  We  have 
epitomes  of  all  the  lost  books,  with  the  exception  of  ten;  but 
these  are  so  scanty  as  to  amount  to  little  more  than  tables  of 
contents.  Their  probable  date  is  not  later  than  the  time  of 
Trajan.  To  summarize  the  result,  then,  thirty-five  books  have 
been  saved  and  one  hundred  and  seven  lost — a  most  deplor- 
able record,  especially  when  we  consider  that  in  the  later 
books  the  historian  treated  of  times  and  events  whereof  his 
means  of  knowledge  were  adequate  to  his  task. 

TITUS  LIVIUS  was  born  at  Patavium,  the  modern  Padua, 
some  time  between  61  and  57  B.  c.  Of  his  parentage  and  early 
life  nothing  is  known.  It  is  easy  to  surmise  that  he  was  well 
born,  from  his  political  bias  in  favour  of  the  aristocratic  party, 
and  from  the  evident  fact  of  his  having  received  a  liberal  edu- 
cation; yet  the  former  of  these  arguments  is  not  at  all  incon- 
sistent with  the  opposite  supposition,  and  the  latter  should 
lead  to  no  very  definite  conclusion  when  we  remember  that  in 
his  days  few  industries  were  more  profitable  than  the  higher 
education  of  slaves  for  the  pampered  Roman  market.  Niebuhr 
infers,  from  a  sentence  quoted  by  Quintilian,  that  Livy  began 
life  as  a  teacher  of  rhetoric.  However  that  may  be,  it  seems 
certain  that  he  came  to  Rome  about  30  B.  c.,  was  introduced 
to  Augustus  and  won  his  patronage  and  favour,  and  after  the 
death  of  his  great  patron  and  friend  retired  to  the  city  of  his 
birth,  where  he  died,  17  A.  D.  It  is  probable  that  he  had  fixed 
the  date  of  the  Emperor's  death  as  the  limit  of  his  history,  and 
that  his  own  decease  cut  short  his  task. 


LIVY'S  HISTORY  V 

No  historian  ever  told  a  story  more  delightfully.  The 
available  translations  leave  much  to  be  desired,  but  to  the 
student  of  Latin  Livy's  style  is  pure  and  simple,  and  possesses 
that  charm  which  purity  and  simplicity  always  give.  If  there 
is  anything  to  justify  the  charge  of  "  Patavinity,"  or  pro- 
vincialism, made  by  Asinius  Pollio,  we,  at  least,  are  not 
learned  enough  in  Latin  to  detect  it;  and  Pollio,  too,  ap- 
pears to  have  been  no  gentle  critic  if  we  may  judge  by  his 
equally  severe  strictures  upon  Cicero,  Caesar,  and  Sallust 
This  much  we  know:  the  Patavian's  heroes  live;  his  events 
happen,  and  we  are  carried  along  upon  their  tide.  Our  sym- 
pathies, our  indignation,  our  enthusiasm,  are  summoned  into 
being,  and  history  and  fiction  appear  to  walk  hand  in  hand 
for  our  instruction  and  amusement.  In  this  latter  word- 
fiction — lies  the  charge  most  often  and  most  strongly  made 
against  him — the  charge  that  he  has  written  a  story  and  no 
more ;  that  with  him  past  time  existed  but  to  furnish  materials 
"  to  point  a  moral  or  adorn  a  tale."  Let  us  consider  to  what 
extent  this  is  true,  and,  if  true,  in  what  measure  the  author 
has  sinned  by  it  or  we  have  lost. 

No  one  would  claim  that  the  rules  by  which  scientific  his- 
torians of  to-day  are  judged  should  be  applied  to  those  that 
wrote  when  history  was  young,  when  the  boundaries  between 
the  possible  and  the  impossible  were  less  clearly  defined,  or 
when,  in  fact,  such  boundaries  hardly  existed  in  men's  minds. 
In  this  connection,  even  while  we  vaunt,  we  smile.  After  all, 
how  much  of  our  modern  and  so-called  scientific  history  must 
strike  the  reasoning  reader  as  mere  theorizing  or  as  special 
pleading  based  upon  the  slenderest  evidence !  Among  the  an- 
cients the  work  of  the  historians  whom  we  consider  trustworthy 
— such  writers,  for  instance,  as  Caesar,  Thucydides,  Xenophon, 
Polybius,  and  Tacitus — may  be  said  to  fall  generally  within 
Rawlinson's  canons  I  and  2  of  historical  criticism — that  is,  (i) 
cases  where  the  historian  has  personal  knowledge  concerning 
the  facts  whereof  he  writes,  or  (2)  where  the  facts  are  such 
that  he  may  reasonably  be  supposed  to  have  obtained  them 
from  contemporary  witnesses.  Canon  2  might  be  elaborated 
and  refined  very  considerably,  and  perhaps  to  advantage.  It 


vi  LIVY'S   HISTORY 

naturally  includes  as  sources  of  knowledge — first,  personal 
interviews  with  contemporary  witnesses;  and,  second,  access 
to  the  writings  of  historians  whose  opportunities  brought  them 
within  canon  I.  In  this  latter  case  the  evidence  would  be  less 
convincing,  owing  to  the  lack  of  opportunity  to  cross-question, 
though  even  here  apparent  lack  of  bias  or  the  existence  of 
biassed  testimony  on  both  sides,  from  which  a  judicious  man 
might  have  a  fair  chance  to  extract  the  truth,  would  go  far  to 
cure  the  defect. 

The  point,  however,  to  which  I  tend  is,  that  the  portions 
of  Livy's  history  from  which  we  must  judge  of  his  trustwor- 
thiness treat,  for  the  most  part,  of  periods  concerning  which 
even  his  evidence  was  of  the  scantiest  and  poorest  description. 
He  doubtless  had  family  records,  funeral  panegyrics,  and  in- 
scriptions— all  of  which  were  possibly  almost  as  reliable  as 
those  of  our  own  day.  Songs  sung  at  festivals  and  handed 
down  by  tradition  may  or  may  not  be  held  more  truthful. 
These  he  had  as  well ;  but  the  government  records,  the  ancient 
fasti,  had  been  destroyed  at  the  time  of  the  burning  of  the  city 
by  the  Gauls,  and  there  is  no  hint  of  any  Roman  historian  that 
lived  prior  to  the  date  of  the  second  Punic  war.  Thus  we  may 
safely  infer  that  Livy  wrote  of  the  first  five  hundred  years 
without  the  aid  of  any  contemporary  evidence,  either  approxi- 
mately complete  or  ostensibly  reliable.  With  the  beginning 
of  the  second  Punic  war  began  also  the  writing  of  history. 
Quintus  Fabius  Pictor  had  left  a  work,  which  Polybius  con- 
demned on  the  score  of  its  evident  partiality.  Lucius  Cincius 
Alimentus,  whose  claim  to  knowledge  if  not  to  impartiality 
rests  largely  on  the  fact  that  he  was  captured  and  held  prisoner 
by  Hannibal,  also  left  memoirs;  but  Hannibal  was  not  famous 
for  treating  prisoners  mildly,  and  the  Romans,  most  cruel 
themselves  in  this  respect,  were  always  deeply  scandalized  by 
a  much  less  degree  of  harshness  on  the  part  of  their  enemies. 
Above  all,  there  was  Polybius  himself,  who  perhaps  ap- 
proaches nearer  to  the  critical  historian  than  any  writer  of 
antiquity,  and  it  is  Polybius  upon  whom  Livy  mainly  relies 
through  his  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  decades.  The  works  of 
Fabius  and  Cincius  are  lost.  So  also  are  those  of  the  Lacedae- 


LIVY'S   HISTORY  yii 

monian  Sosilus  and  the  Sicilian  Silanus,  who  campaigned  with 
Hannibal  and  wrote  the  Carthaginian  side  of  the  story;  nor 
is  there  any  evidence  that  either  Polybius  or  Livy  had  access 
to  their  writings.  Polybius,  then,  may  be  said  to  be  the  only 
reliable  source  from  which  Livy  could  draw '  for  any  of  his 
extant  books,  and  before  condemning  unqualifiedly  in  the 
cases  where  he  deserts  him  and  harks  back  to  Roman  authori- 
ties we  must  remember  that  Livy  was  a  strong  nationalist,  one 
of  a  people  who,  despite  their  conquests,  were  essentially 
narrow,  prejudiced,  egotistical;  and,  thus  remembering,  we 
must  marvel  that  he  so  fully  recognises  the  merit  of  his  un- 
prejudiced guide  and  wanders  as  little  as  he  does.  All  told, 
it  is  quite  certain  that  he  has  dealt  more  fairly  by  Hannibal 
than  have  Alison  and  other  English  historians  by  Napoleon. 
His  unreliability  consists  rather  in  his  conclusions  than  in  his 
facts,  and  it  is  unquestioned  that  through  all  the  pages  of  the 
third  decade  he  has  so  told  the  story  of  the  man  most  hated 
by  Rome — the  deadliest  enemy  she  had  ever  encountered — 
that  the  reader  can  not  fail  to  feel  the  greatness  of  Hannibal 
dominating  every  chapter. 

Referring  again  to  the  criticisms  made  so  lavishly  upon 
Livy's  story  of  the  earlier  centuries,  it  is  well  to  recall  the  con- 
tention of  the  hard-headed  Scotchman  Ferguson,  that  with 
all  our  critical  acumen  we  have  found  no  sure  ground  to  rest 
upon  until  we  reach  the  second  Punic  war.  Niebuhr,  on  the 
other  hand,  whose  German  temperament  is  alike  prone  to 
delve  or  to  theorize,  is  disposed  to  think — with  considerable 
generosity  to  our  abilities,  it  appears  to  me — that  we  may  yet 
evolve  a  fairly  true  history  of  Rome  from  the  foundation  of 
the  commonwealth.  As  to  the  times  of  the  kings,  it  is  ad- 
mitted that  we  know  nothing,  while  from  the  founding  of  the 
commonwealth  to  the  second  Punic  war  the  field  may  be  de- 
scribed as,  at  the  best,  but  a  battle-ground  for  rival  theories. 

The  ancient  historian  had,  as  a  rule,  little  to  do  with  such 
considerations  or  controversies.  In  the  lack  of  solid  evidence 
he  had  only  to  write  down  the  accepted  story  of  the  origin 
of  things,  as  drawn  from  the  lips  of  poetry,  legend,  or  tradi- 
tion, and  it  was  for  Livy  to  write  thus  or  not  at  all.  Even 


viii  LIVY'S   HISTORY 

here  the  honesty  of  his  intention  is  apparent.  For  much  of 
his  early  history  he  does  not  claim  more  than  is  claimed  for  it 
by  many  of  his  modern  critics,  while  time  and  again  he  pauses 
to  express  a  doubt  as  to  the  credibility  of  some  incident:  A 
notable  instance  of  this  is  found  in  his  criticism  of  those  stories 
most  dear  to  the  Roman  heart — the  stories  of  the  birth  and 
apotheosis  of  Romulus.  On  the  other  hand,  if  he  has  given 
free  life  to  many  beautiful  legends  that  were  undoubtedly  cur- 
rent and  believed  for  centuries,  is  it  heresy  to  avow  that  these 
as  such  seem  to  me  of  more  true  value  to  the  antiquary  than  if 
they  had  been  subjected  at  their  historical  inception  to  the 
critical  and  theoretical  methods  of  to-day?  I  can  not  hold 
Livy  quite  unpardonable  even  when  following,  as  he  often 
does,  such  authorities  as  the  Furian  family  version  of  the  re- 
demption of  the  city  by  the  arms  of  their  progenitor  Camillus, 
instead  of  by  the  payment  of  the  agreed  ransom,  as  modern 
writers  consider  proven,  while  his  putting  of  set  speeches  into 
the  mouths  of  his  characters  may  be  described  as  a  conven- 
tional usage  of  ancient  historians,  which  certainly  added  to 
the  liveliness  of  the  narrative  and  probably  was  neither  in- 
tended to  be  taken  literally  nor  resulted  in  deceiving  any  one. 

Reverting  for  a  moment  to  Livy's  honesty  and  frankness, 
so  far  as  his  intent  might  govern  such  qualities,  I  think  no 
stronger  evidence  in  his  favour  can  be  found  than  his  avowed 
republican  leanings  at  the  court  of  Augustus  and  his  just  esti- 
mate of  Cicero's  character  in  the  face  of  the  favour  of  a  prince 
by  whose  consent  the  great  orator  had  been  assassinated. 
Above  all,  it  must  have  been  a  fearless  and  honest  man  who 
could  swing  the  scourge  with  which  he  lashed  his  degenerate 
countrymen  in  those  stinging  words,  "  The  present  times, 
when  we  can  endure  neither  our  vices  nor  their  remedies." 

Nevertheless,  and  despite  the  facts  that  Livy  means  to 
be  honest  and  that  he  questions  much  on  grounds  that  would 
not  shame  the  repute  of  many  of  his  modern  critics,  the  charge 
is  doubtless  true  that  his  writings  are  not  free  from  prejudice 
in  favour  of  his  country.  That  he  definitely  regarded  his- 
tory rather  as  a  moral  agency  and  a  lesson  for  the  future  than 
as  an  irrefutable  narrative  of  the  past,  I  consider  highly  hypo- 


LIVY'S  HISTORY  ix 

thetical;  but  it  is  probable  that  his  mind  was  not  of  the  type 
that  is  most  diligent  in  the  close,  exhaustive,  and  logical 
study  so  necessary  to  the  historian  of  to-day.  "  Super- 
ficial," if  we  could  eliminate  the  reproach  in  the  word,  would 
perhaps  go  far  toward  describing  him.  He  is  what  we  would 
call  a  popular  rather  than  a  scientific  writer,  and,  since  we  think 
somewhat  lightly  of  such  when  they  write  on  what  we  con- 
sider scientific  subjects,  we  are  too  apt  to  transfer  their  light 
repute  to  an  author  who  wrote  popularly  at  a  time  when  this 
treatment  was  best  adapted  to  his  audience,  his  aims,  and  the 
material  at  his  command.  That  he  has  survived  through  all 
these  centuries,  and  has  enjoyed,  despite  all  criticism,  the  posi- 
tion in  the  literature  of  the  world  which  his  very  critics  have 
united  in  conceding  to  him,  is  perhaps  a  stronger  commenda- 
tion than  any  technical  approval. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  present  work  it  was  felt  that 
selections  aggregating  seven  books  would  accomplish  all  the 
purposes  of  a  complete  presentation.  The  editors  have  chosen 
the  first  three  books  of  the  first  decade  as  telling  what  no  one 
can  better  tell  than  Livy:  the  stories  and  legends  connected 
with  the  foundation  and  early  life  of  Rome.  Here,  as  I  have 
said,  there  was  nothing  for  him  to  do  but  cut  loose  from  all 
trammels  and  hang  breathless,  pen  in  hand,  upon  the  lips  of 
tradition.  None  can  hold  but  that  her  faithful  scribe  has  writ 
down  her  words  with  all  their  ancient  colour,  with  reverence 
reigning  over  his  heart,  however  doubts  might  lurk  within  his 
brain.  These  books  close  with  the  restoration  of  the  consular 
power,  after  the  downfall  of  the  tyrannical  rule  of  the  Decem- 
virs, the  revolution  following  upon  the  attempt  of  Appius 
Claudius  to  seize  Virginia,  the  daughter  of  a  citizen  who, 
rather  than  see  his  child  fall  into  the  clutches  of  the  cruel  pa- 
trician, killed  her  with  his  own  hand  in  the  market-place, 
and,  rushing  into  the  camp  with  the  bloody  knife,  caused  the 
soldiers  to  revolt.  The  second  section  comprises  Books  XXI- 
XXIV,  a  part  of  the  narrative  of  the  second  Punic  war,  a  mili- 
tary exploit  the  most  remarkable  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

The  question  who  was  the  greatest  general  that  ever  lived 
has  been  a  fruitful  source  of  discussion,  and  Alexander,  Caesar, 


x  LIVY'S   HISTORY 

and  Napoleon  have  each  found  numerous  and  ardent  sup- 
porters. Without  decrying  the  signal  abilities  of  these  chiefs, 
it  must  nevertheless  be  remembered  that  each  commanded 
a  homogeneous  army  and  had  behind  him  a  compact  nation 
the  most  warlike  and  powerful  of  his  time.  The  adversaries 
also  of  the  Greek  and  the  Roman  were  in  the  one  instance  an 
effete  power  already  falling  to  pieces  by  its  own  internal  weak- 
ness, and  in  the  other,  for  the  most  part,  scattered  tribes  of 
barbarians  without  unity  of  purpose  or  military  discipline. 
Even  in  his  civil  wars  Caesar's  armies  were  veterans,  and  those 
of  the  commonwealth  were,  comparatively  speaking,  recruits. 
But  when  the  reader  of  these  pages  carefully  considers  the 
story  of  Hannibal's  campaign  in  Italy,  what  does  he  find? 
Two  nations — one  Caucasian,  young,  warlike  above  all  its 
contemporaries,  with  a  record  behind  it  of  steady  aggrandize- 
ment and  almost  unbroken  victory,  a  nation  every  citizen  of 
which  was  a  soldier.  On  the  other  side,  a  race  of  merchants 
Semitic  in  blood,  a  city  whose  citizens  had  long  since  ceased 
to  go  to  war,  preferring  that  their  gold  should  fight  for  them 
by  the  hands  of  mercenaries  of  every  race  and  clime — hirelings 
whose  ungoverned  valour  had  proved  almost  as  deadly  to  their 
employers  and  generals  as  to  their  enemies.  Above  all,  the 
same  battle  had  been  joined  before  when  Rome  was  weaker 
and  Carthage  stronger,  and  Carthage  had  already  shown  her 
weakness  and  Rome  her  strength. 

And  now  in  this  renewed  war  we  see  a  young  man,  aided 
only  by  a  little  group  of  compatriots,  welding  together  an 
army  of  the  most  heterogeneous  elements — Spaniards,  Gauls, 
Numidians,  Moors,  Greeks — men  of  almost  every  race  except 
his  own.  We  see  him  cutting  loose  from  his  base  of  supplies, 
leaving  enemies  behind  him,  to  force  his  way  through  hostile 
races,  through  unknown  lands  bristling  with  almost  impassa- 
ble mountains  and  frigid  with  snow  and  ice.  We  see  him  con- 
quering here,  making  friends  and  allies  there,  and,  more  won- 
derful than  all,  holding  his  mongrel  horde  together  through 
hardships  and  losses  by  the  force  of  his  character  alone.  We 
see  him  at  last  descending  into  the  plains  of  Italy.  We  see 
him  not  merely  defeating  but  annihilating  army  after  army 


LIVY'S   HISTORY  xi 

more  numerous  than  his  own  and  composed  of  better  raw  ma- 
terial. We  see  him,  unaided,  ranging  from  end  to  end  of  the 
peninsula,  none  daring  to  meet  him  with  opposing  standards, 
and  the  greatest  general  of  Rome  winning  laurels  because 
he  knew  enough  to  recognise  his  own  hopeless  inferiority. 
All  stories  of  reverses  other  than  those  of  mere  detachments 
may  pretty  safely  be  set  down  as  the  exaggeration  of  Roman 
writers.  Situated  as  was  Hannibal,  the  loss  of  one  mar- 
shalled field  would  have  meant  immediate  ruin,  and  ruin 
never  came  when  he  fought  in  Italy.  On  the  contrary,  with- 
out supplies  save  what  his  sword  could  take,  without  friends 
save  what  his  genius  and  his  fortune  could  win,  he  maintained 
his  place  and  his  superiority  not  for  one  or  for  two  but  through 
fourteen  years,  during  all  which  time  we  hear  no  murmur  of 
mutiny,  no  hint  of  aught  but  obedience  and  devotion  among 
the  incongruous  and  unruly  elements  from  which  he  had  fash- 
ioned his  invincible  army;  and  at  the  end  we  see  him  leaving 
Italy  of  his  own  free  will,  at  the  call  of  his  country,  to  waste 
himself  in  a  vain  effort  to  save  her  from  the  blunders  of  other 
leaders  and  from  the  penalty  of  inherent  weakness,  which  only 
his  sword  had  so  long  warded  off. 

When  I  consider  the  means,  the  opposition,  and  the 
achievement — a  combination  of  elements  by  which  alone  we 
can  judge  such  questions  with  even  approximate  fairness — 
I  can  not  but  feel  that  of  all  military  exploits  this  invasion  of 
Italy,  which  we  shall  read  of  here,  was  the  most  remarkable; 
that  of  all  commanders  Hannibal  has  shown  himself  to  be 
the  greatest.  Some  of  Livy's  charges  against  him  as  a  man 
are  doubtless  true.  Avarice  was  in  his  blood;  and  cruelty 
also,  though  it  ill  became  a  Roman  to  chide  an  enemy  on  that 
score.  Besides,  Livy  himself  tells  how  Hannibal  had  sought 
for  the  bodies  of  the  generals  he  had  slain,  that  he  might  give 
them  the  rites  of  honourable  sepulture;  tells  it,  and  in  the 
next  breath  relates  how  the  Roman  commander  mutilated  the 
corpse  of  the  fallen  Hasdrubal  and  threw  the  head  into  his 
brother's  camp.  So,  too,  his  naive  explanation  that  Hannibal's 
"  more  than  Punic  perfidy  "  consisted  mainly  of  ambushes 
and  similar  military  strategies,  goes  to  show,  as  I  have  said, 


xii  LIVY'S   HISTORY 

that  whatever  is  unjust  in  our  author's  estimate  was  rather  the 
result  of  the  prejudiced  deductions  of  national  egotism  than 
of  facts  wilfully  or  carelessly  distorted  by  partisan  spite. 

To  the  reader  who  bears  well  in  mind  the  points  I  have 
ventured  to  make,  I  predict  profit  hardly  less  than  pleasure  in 
these  pages;  for  Livy  is  perhaps  the  only  historian  who  may 
be  said  to  have  been  honest  enough  to  furnish  much  of  the 
material  for  criticism  of  himself,  and  to  be,  to  a  very  consid- 
erable extent,  self-adjusting. 

DUFFIELD    OSBORNE. 


-*'- 


THE  AUTHOR'S    PREFACE1 


WHETHER  in  tracing  the  history  of  the  Roman  peo- 
ple, from  the  foundation  of  the  city,  I  shall  employ 
myself  to  a  useful  purpose,  I  am  neither  very  cer- 
tain, nor,  if  I  were,  dare  I  say;  inasmuch  as  I  ob- 
serve that  it  is  both  an  old  and  hackneyed  practice,  later 
authors  always  supposing  that  they  will  either  adduce  some- 
thing more  authentic  in  the  facts,  or,  that  they  will  excel  the 
less  polished  ancients  in  their  style  of  writing.  Be  that  as  it 
may,  it  will,  at  all  events,  be  a  satisfaction  to  me  that  I  too 
have  contributed  my  share  to  perpetuate  the  achievements  of 
a  people,  the  lords  of  the  world;  and  if,  amid  so  great  a  num- 
ber of  historians,  my  reputation  should  remain  in  obscurity, 
I  may  console  myself  with  the  celebrity  and  lustre  of  those 
who  shall  stand  in  the  way  of  my  fame.  Moreover,  the  sub- 
ject is  of  immense  labour,  as  being  one  which  must  be 
traced  back  for  more  than  seven  hundred  years,  and  which, 
having  set  out  from  small  beginnings,  has  increased  to  such 
a  degree  that  it  is  now  distressed  by  its  own  magnitude.  And, 
to  most  readers,  I  doubt  not  but  that  the  first  origin  and  the 
events  immediately  succeeding,  will  afford  but  little  pleasure, 
while  they  will  be  hastening  to  these  later  times,  in  which  the 
strength  of  this  overgrown  people  has  for  a  long  period  been 
working  its  own  destruction.  I,  on  the  contrary,  shall  seek 
this,  as  a  reward  of  my  labour,  viz.,  to  withdraw  myself  from 
the  view  of  the  calamities,  which  our  age  has  witnessed  for 
so  many  years,  so  long  as  I  am  reviewing  with  my  whole  at- 
tention these  ancient  times,  being  free  from  every  care  that 
may  distract  a  writer's  mind,  though  it  can  not  warp  it  from 

1  The  tone  of  dignified  despondency  which  pervades  this  remarkable 
preface  tells  us  much.  That  the  republican  historian  was  no  timid  or 
time-serving  flatterer  of  prince  or  public  is  more  than  clear,  while  his 
unerring  judgment  of  the  future  should  bring  much  of  respect  for  his 
judgment  of  the  past.  When  he  wrote,  Rome  was  more  powerful  than 
ever.  Only  the  seeds  of  ruin  were  visible,  yet  he  already  divines  their 
full  fruitage. — D.  O. 


xiv  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY 

the  truth.  The  traditions  that  have  come  down  to  us  of 
what  happened  before  the  building  of  the  city,  or  before  its 
building  was  contemplated,  as  being  suitable  rather  to  the 
fictions  of  poetry  than  to  the  genuine  records  of  history,  I 
have  no  intention  either  to  affirm  or  to  refute.  This  indulgence 
is  conceded  to  antiquity,  that  by  blending  things  human  with 
divine,  it  may  make  the  origin  of  cities  appear  more  vener- 
able: and  if  any  people  might  be  allowed  to  consecrate  their 
origin,  and  to  ascribe  it  to  the  gods  as  its  authors,  such  is  the 
renown  of  the  Roman  people  in  war,  that  when  they  represent 
Mars,  in  particular,  as  their  own  parent  and  that  of  their 
founder,  the  nations  of  the  world  may  submit  to  this  as  pa- 
tiently as  they  submit  to  their  sovereignty.  But  in  whatever 
way  these  and  similar  matters  shall  be  attended  to,  or  judged 
of,  I  shall  not  deem  it  of  great  importance.  I  would  have  every 
man  apply  his  mind  seriously  to  consider  these  points,  viz., 
what  their  life  and  what  their  manners  were;  through  what 
men  and  by  what  measures,  both  in  peace  and  in  war,  their 
empire  was  acquired  and  extended;  then,  as  discipline  grad- 
ually declined,  let  him  follow  in  his  thoughts  their  morals,  at 
first  as  slightly  giving  way,  anon  how  they  sunk  more  and 
more,  then  began  to  fall  headlong,  until  he  reaches  the  present 
times,  when  we  can  endure  neither  our  vices  nor  their  reme- 
dies. This  it  is  which  is  particularly  salutary  and  profitable 
in  the  study  of  history,  that  you  behold  instances  of  every 
variety  of  conduct  displayed  on  a  conspicuous  monument; 
that  thence  you  may  select  for  yourself  and  for  your  coun- 
try that  which  you  may  imitate;  thence  note  what  is  shame- 
ful in  the  undertaking,  and  shameful  in  the  result,  which 
you  may  avoid.  But  either  a  fond  partiality  for  the  task  I 
have  undertaken  deceives  me,  or  there  never  was  any  state 
either  greater,  or  more  moral,  or  richer  in  good  examples,  nor 
one  into  which  luxury  and  avarice  made  their  entrance  so  late, 
and  where  poverty  and  frugality  were  so  much  and  so  long 
honoured;  so  that  the  less  wealth  there  was,  the  less  desire 
was  there.  Of  late,  riches  have  introduced  avarice,  and  ex- 
cessive pleasures  a  longing  for  them,  amid  luxury  and  a  pas- 
sion for  ruining  ourselves  and  destroying  everything  else. 
But  let  complaints,  which  will  not  be  agreeable  even  then, 
when  perhaps  they  will  be  also  necessary,  be  kept  aloof  at  least 
from  the  first  stage  of  beginning  so  great  a  work.  We  should 
rather,  if  it  was  usual  with  us  (historians)  as  it  is  with  poets, 
begin  with  good  omens,  vows  and  prayers  to  the  gods  and 
goddesses  to  vouchsafe  good  success  to  our  efforts  in  so  ardu- 
ous an  undertaking. 


CONTENTS 

BOOK    I 

THE  PERIOD   OF  THE   KINGS — B.  C.  $10 

PACK 

Arrival  of  ./Eneas  in  Italy — Ascanius  founds  Alba  Longa — Birth  of 
Romulus  and  Remus — Founding  the  city — Rome  under  the 
kings — Death  of  Lucretia — Expulsion  of  the  Tarquins — First 
consuls  elected  ..........  I 

BOOK    II 
THE  FIRST  COMMONWEALTH — B.  C.  509-468 

Brutus  establishes  the  republic — A  conspiracy  to  receive  the  kings 
into  the  city — Death  of  Brutus — Dedication  of  the  Capitol — Bat- 
tle of  Lake  Regillus — Secession  of  the  commons  to  the  Sacred 
Mount — Five  tribunes  of  the  people  appointed — First  proposal 
of  an  agrarian  law — Patriotism  of  the  Fabian  family — Contests 
of  the  plebeians  and  patricians 72 

BOOK   III 

THE  DECEMVIRATE — B.  C.  468-446 

Disturbances  over  the  agrarian  law — Cincinnatus  called  from  his 
fields  and  made  dictator — Number  of  tribunes  increased  to  ten — 
Decemvirs  appointed — The  ten  tables — Tyranny  of  the  decem- 
virs— Death  of  Virginia — Re-establishment  of  the  consular  and 
tribunician  power 148 

BOOK    XXI 

THE  SECOND   PUNIC   WAR — B.  C.  2l8 

Importance  of  the  second  Punic  war — Character  of  Hannibal — Siege 
and  capture  of  Saguntum  by  the  Carthaginians — War  declared — 
Hannibal  passes  the  Ebro  and  Rhone,  and  crosses  the  Alps — De- 
feat of  Scipio  on  the  Ticinus — Battle  of  Trebia — Roman  victories 
in  Spain 232 

XY 


xvi  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY 

BOOK   XXII 

PACK 

THE  SECOND  PUNIC  WAR   (CONTINUED) — B.  C.  2I7~2l6 

Hannibal  enters  Etruria — Battle,  and  defeat  of  the  Romans  at  Lake 
Trasumennus — Fabius  Maximus  appointed  dictator — Minucius 
influences  the  army  to  rebel  against  the  tactics  of  Fabius — Suc- 
cess of  the  Scipios  in  Spain — Minucius  rescued  by  Fabius  from 
defeat — Battle  of  Cannae,  and  utter  defeat  of  the  Roman  army — 
Hannibal's  delay  alone  loses  him  the  city 293 

BOOK    XXIII 
THE  SECOND    PUNIC   WAR   (CONTINUED)— B.  C.  216-21$ 

Revolt  of  the  Campanians — Marcellus  repulses  Hannibal  at  Nola — 
Hannibal  goes  into  winter  quarters  at  Capua — King  Hiero  as- 
sists the  Romans — Destruction  of  a  Roman  army  in  Gaul — 
Roman  victories  in  Spain — Treaty  between  Hannibal  and  Philip, 
King  of  Macedon 355 

BOOK   XXIV 
THE  SECOND   PUNIC  WAR   (CONTINUED) — B.  C.  215-213 

Assassination  of  Hieronymus,  King  of  Syracuse — Hanno  and  Han- 
nibal defeated  by  the  Romans — Hannibal  retires  to  Salapia — 
Political  troubles  in  Sicily — Marcellus  besieges  Syracuse — Inge- 
nuity of  Archimedes — War  with  Philip  of  Macedon — Defeat  of 
Philip — Recovery  of  Saguntum  by  the  Romans — Rome  employs 
mercenaries  for  the  first  time  in  her  history 410 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 

TITUS  LIVIUS       Frontispiece 

From  an  old  engraving. 

TULLIA $6 

From  a  painting  by  Ernst  Hildebrand. 

HORATIUS   AT  THE   BRIDGE 84 

From  a  painting  by  Vincenzio  Camutinni. 

DEATH  OF  VIRGINIA 202 

From  a  painting  by  Vincenzio  Camucinni. 

HANNIBAL 238 

From  an  old  engraving. 


LIVY'S    ROMAN    HISTORY 


BOOK  r 

THE    PERIOD    OF   THE   KINGS 

TO  begin  with,  it  is  generally  admitted  that,  after  the 
taking  of  Troy,  while  all  the  other  Trojans  were  treated 
with  severity,  in  the  case  of  two,  ^neas  and  Antenor, 
the  Greeks  forbore  to  exercise  the  full  rights  of  war, 
both  on  account  of  an  ancient  tie  of  hospitality,  and  because 
they  had  persistently  recommended  peace  and  the  restora- 
tion of  Helen :  and  then  Antenor,  after  various  vicissitudes, 
reached  the  inmost  bay  of  the  Adriatic  Sea,  accompanied  by 
a  body  of  the  Eneti,  who  had  been  driven  from  Paphlagonia 
by  civil  disturbance,  and  were  in  search  both  of  a  place  of  set- 
tlement and  a  leader,  their  chief  Pylaemenes  having  perished 
at  Troy;  and  that  the  Eneti  and  Trojans,  having  driven  out 
the  Euganei,  who  dwelt  between  the  sea  and  the  Alps,  occu- 
pied these  districts.  In  fact,  the  place  where  they  first  landed 
is  called  Troy,  and  from  this  it  is  named  the  Trojan  canton. 
The  nation  as  a  whole  is  called  Veneti.  It  is  also  agreed  that 
JEneas,  an  exile  from  home  owing  to  a  like  misfortune,  but 
conducted  by  the  fates  to  the  founding  of  a  greater  empire, 
came  first  to  Macedonia,  that  he  was  then  driven  ashore  at 
Sicily  in  his  quest  for  a  settlement,  and  sailing  thence  di- 
rected his  course  to  the  territory  of  Laurentum.  This  spot 
also  bears  the  name  of  Troy.  When  the  Trojans,  having  dis- 
embarked there,  were  driving  off  booty  from  the  country,  as 
was  only  natural,  seeing  that  they  had  nothing  left  but  their 
arms  and  ships  after  their  almost  boundless  wandering,  Lati- 
nus  the  king  and  the  Aborigines,  who  then  occupied  these 
districts,  assembled  in  arms  from  the  city  and  country  to 
repel  the  violence  of  the  new-comers.  In  regard  to  what  fol- 

1  Books  I-III  are  based  upon  the  translation  by  John  Henry  Freese, 
but  in  many  places  have  been  revised  or  retranslated  by  Duffield  Osborne. 
I  I 


2  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY          [B.  c. 753 

lowed  there  is  a  twofold  tradition.  Some  say  that  Latinus, 
having  been  defeated  in  battle,  first  made  peace  and  then  con- 
cluded an  alliance  with  JEneas ;  others,  that  when  the  armies 
had  taken  up  their  position  in  order  of  battle,  before  the 
trumpets  sounded,  Latinus  advanced  to  the  front,  and  invited 
the  leader  of  the  strangers  to  a  conference.  He  then  inquired 
what  manner  of  men  they  were,  whence  they  had  come,  for 
what  reasons  they  had  left  their  home,  and  in  quest  of  what 
they  had  landed  on  Laurentine  territory.  After  he  heard  that 
the  host  were  Trojans,  their  chief  ^Eneas,  the  son  of  Anchises 
and  Venus,  and  that,  exiled  from  home,  their  country  hav- 
ing been  destroyed  by  fire,  they  were  seeking  a  settlement 
and  a  site  for  building  a  city,  struck  with  admiration  both  at 
the  noble  character  of  the  nation  and  the  hero,  and  at  their 
spirit,  ready  alike  for  peace  or  war,  he  ratified  the  pledge  of 
future  friendship  by  clasping  hands.  Thereupon  a  treaty  was 
concluded  between  the  chiefs,  and  mutual  greetings  passed 
between  the  armies :  -^Eneas  was  hospitably  entertained  at  the 
house  of  Latinus ;  there  Latinus,  in  the  presence  of  his  house- 
hold gods,  cemented  the  public  league  by  a  family  one,  by 
giving  JEneas  his  daughter  in  marriage.  This  event  fully 
confirmed  the  Trojans  in  the  hope  of  at  length  terminating 
their  wanderings  by  a  lasting  and  permanent  settlement. 
They  built  a  town,  which  ^Eneas  called  Lavinium  after  the 
name  of  his  wife.  Shortly  afterward  also,  a  son  was  the  issue 
of  the  recently  concluded  marriage,  to  whom  his  parents  gave 
the  name  of  Ascanius. 

Aborigines  and  Trojans  were  soon  afterward  the  joint  ob- 
jects of  a  hostile  attack.  Turnus,  king  of  the  Rutulians,  to 
whom  Lavinia  had  been  affianced  before  the  arrival  of  ^Eneas, 
indignant  that  a  stranger  had  been  preferred  to  himself,  had 
made  war  on  ^Eneas  and  Latinus  together.  Neither  army 
came  out  of  the  struggle  with  satisfaction.  The  Rutulians 
were  vanquished :  the  victorious  Aborigines  and  Trojans  lost 
their  leader  Latinus.  Thereupon  Turnus  and  the  Rutulians, 
mistrustful  of  their  strength,  had  recourse  to  the  prosperous 
and  powerful  Etruscans,  and  their  king  Mezentius,  whose 
seat  of  government  was  at  Caere,  at  that  time  a  flourishing 
town.  Even  from  the  outset  he  had  viewed  with  dissatisfac- 
tion the  founding  of  a  new  city,  and,  as  at  that  time  he  consid- 
ered that  the  Trojan  power  was  increasing  far  more  than  was 
altogether  consistent  with  the  safety  of  the  neighbouring  peo- 
ples, he  readily  joined  his  forces  in  alliance  with  the  Rutulians. 
^Eneas,  to  gain  the  good-will  of  the  Aborigines  in  face  of  a  war 
so  serious  and  alarming,  and  in  order  that  they  might  all  be 


B-  C. 753]  ALBA   LONGA   BUILT  3 

not  only  under  the  same  laws  but  might  also  bear  the  same 
name,  called  both  nations  Latins.  In  fact,  subsequently,  the 
Aborigines  were  not  behind  the  Trojans  in  zeal  and  loyalty  to- 
ward their  king  ^Eneas.  Accordingly,  in  full  reliance  on  this 
state  of  mind  of  the  two  nations,  who  were  daily  becoming 
more  and  more  united,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Etruria  was 
so  powerful,  that  at  this  time  it  had  filled  with  the  fame  of  its 
renown  not  only  the  land  but  the  sea  also,  throughout  the 
whole  length  of  Italy  from  the  Alps  to  the  Sicilian  Strait, 
yEneas  led  out  his  forces  into  the  field,  although  he  might 
have  repelled  their  attack  by  means  of  his  fortifications. 
Thereupon  a  battle  was  fought,  in  which  victory  rested  with 
the  Latins,  but  for  ^neas  it  was  even  the  last  of  his  acts  on 
earth.  He,  by  whatever  name  laws  human  and  divine  de- 
mand he  should  be  called,  was  buried  on  the  banks  of  the 
river  Numicus :  they  call  him  Jupiter  Indiges. 

Ascanius,  the  son  of  JEneas,  was  not  yet  old  enough  to 
rule;  the  government,  however,  remained  unassailed  for  him 
till  he  reached  the  age  of  maturity.  In  the  interim,  under  the 
regency  of  a  woman — so  great  was  Lavinia's  capacity — the 
Latin  state  and  the  boy's  kingdom,  inherited  from  his  father 
and  grandfather,  was  secured  for  him.  I  will  not  discuss  the 
question — for  who  can  state  as  certain  a  matter  of  such  an- 
tiquity?— whether  it  was  this  Ascanius,  or  one  older  than  he, 
born  of  Creusa,  before  the  fall  of  Troy,  and  subsequently  the 
companion  of  his  father's  flight,  the  same  whom,  under  the 
name  of  lulus,  the  Julian  family  represents  to  be  the  founder  of 
its  name.  Be  that  as  it  may,  this  Ascanius,  wherever  born  and 
of  whatever  mother — it  is  at  any  rate  agreed  that  his  father 
was^neas — seeing  that  Lavinium  was  over-populated,  left  that 
city,  now  a  flourishing  and  wealthy  one,  considering  those 
times,  to  his  mother  or  stepmother,  and  built  himself  a  new  one 
at  the  foot  of  the  Alban  mount,  which,  from  its  situation,  being 
built  all  along  the  ridge  of  a  hill,  was  called  Alba  Longa. 

There  was  an  interval  of  about  thirty  years  between  the 
founding  of  Lavinium  and  the  transplanting  of  the  colony  to 
Alba  Longa.  Yet  its  power  had  increased  to  such  a  degree, 
especially  owing  to  the  defeat  of  the  Etruscans,  that  not  even 
on  the  death  of  ^neas,  nor  subsequently  between  the  period 
of  the  regency  of  Lavinia,  and  the  first  beginnings  of  the  young 
prince's  reign,  did  either  Mezentius,  the  Etruscans,  or  any 
other  neighbouring  peoples  venture  to  take  up  arms  against  it. 
Peace  had  been  concluded  on  the  following  terms,  that  the 
river  Albula,  which  is  now  called  Tiber,  should  be  the  bound- 
ary of  Latin  and  Etruscan  territory.  After  him  Silvius,  son  of 


4  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.C. 753 

Ascanius,  born  by  some  accident  in  the  woods,  became  king. 
He  was  the  father  of  ^Eneas  Silvius,  who  afterward  begot 
Latinus  Silvius.  By  him  several  colonies  were  transplanted, 
which  were  called  Prisci  Latini.  From  this  time  all  the 
princes,  who  ruled  at  Alba,  bore  the  surname  of  Silvius. 
From  Latinus  sprung  Alba;  from  Alba,  Atys;  from  Atys, 
Capys ;  from  Capys,  Capetus ;  from  Capetus,  Tiberinus,  who, 
having  been  drowned  while  crossing  the  river  Albula,  gave  it 
the  name  by  which  it  was  generally  known  among  those  of 
later  times.  He  was  succeeded  by  Agrippa,  son  of  Tiberinus ; 
after  Agrippa,  Romulus  Silvius,  having  received  the  govern- 
ment from  his  father,  became  king.  He  was  killed  by  a  thun- 
derbolt, and  handed  on  the  kingdom  to  Aventinus,  who,  owing 
to  his  being  buried  on  that  hill,  which  now  forms  part  of  the 
city  of  Rome,  gave  it  its  name.  After  him  reigned  Proca,  who 
begot  Numitor  and  Amulius.  To  Numitor,  who  was  the  eldest 
son,  he  bequeathed  the  ancient  kingdom  of  the  Silvian  family. 
Force,  however,  prevailed  more  than  a  father's  wish  or  the  re- 
spect due  to  seniority.  Amulius  drove  out  his  brother  and 
seized  the  kingdom :  he  added  crime  to  crime,  murdered  his 
brother's  male  issue,  and,  under  pretence  of  doing  honour  to 
his  brother's  daughter,  Rea  Silvia,  having  chosen  her  a  Vestal 
Virgin,1  deprived  her  of  all  hopes  of  issue  by  the  obligation  of 
perpetual  virginity. 

My  opinion,  however,  is  that  the  origin  of  so  great  a  city 
and  an  empire  next  in  power  to  that  of  the  gods  was  due  to 
the  fates.  The  Vestal  Rea  was  ravished  by  force,  and  having 
brought  forth  twins,  declared  Mars  to  be  the  father  of  her 
illegitimate  offspring,  either  because  she  really  imagined  it 
to  be  the  case,  or  because  it  was  less  discreditable  to  have 
committed  such  an  offence  with  a  god.2  But  neither  gods 
nor  men  protected  either  her  or  her  offspring  from  the 
king's  cruelty.  The  priestess  was  bound  and  cast  into 
prison;  the  king  ordered  the  children  to  be  thrown  into  the 
flowing  river.  By  some  chance  which  Providence  seemed  to 
direct,  the  Tiber,  having  overflown  its  banks,  thereby  forming 
stagnant  pools,  could  not  be  approached  at  the  regular  course 
of  its  channel ;  notwithstanding  it  gave  the  bearers  of  the  chil- 

1  The  king  was  originally  the  high  priest,  his  office  more  sacerdotal 
than  military :  as  such  he  would  have  the  selection  and  appointment  of 
the  Vestal  Virgins,  the  priestesses  of  Vesta,  the  hearth-goddess.  Their 
chief  duty  was  to  keep  the  sacred  fire  burning  ("the  fire  that  burns  for 
aye "),  and  to  guard  the  relics  in  the  Temple  of  Vesta.  If  convicted  of 
unchastity  they  were  buried  alive. 

*  Surely  there  is  no  lack  of  "  historical  criticism  "  here,  and  on  a  subject 
where  a  Roman  writer  might  be  pardoned  for  some  credulity. — D.  O. 


B.  C. 753]     YOUTH   OF   ROMULUS   AND   REMUS  5 

dren  hope  that  they  could  be  drowned  in  its  water  however 
calm.  Accordingly,  as  if  they  had  executed  the  king's  orders, 
they  exposed  the  boys  in  the  nearest  land-pool,  where  now 
stands  the  ficus  Ruminalis,  which  they  say  was  called  Romu- 
laris.1  At  that  time  the  country  in  those  parts  was  a  desolate 
wilderness.  The  story  goes,  that  when  the  shallow  water, 
subsiding,  had  left  the  floating  trough,  in  which  the  children 
had  been  exposed,  on  dry  ground,  a  thirsty  she-wolf  from  the 
mountains  around  directed  her  course  toward  the  cries  of 
the  infants,  and  held  down  her  teats  to  them  with  such  gentle- 
ness, that  the  keeper  of  the  king's  herd  found  her  licking  the 
boys  with  her  tongue.  They  say  that  his  name  was  Faustulus ; 
and  that  they  were  carried  by  him  to  his  homestead  and  given 
to  his  wife  Larentia  to  be  brought  up.  Some  are  of  the  opin- 
ion that  Larentia  was  called  Lupa  among  the  shepherds  from 
her  being  a  common  prostitute;  and  hence  an  opening  was 
afforded  for  the  marvellous  story.  The  children,  thus  born 
and  thus  brought  up,  as  soon  as  they  reached  the  age  of  youth, 
did  not  lead  a  life  of  inactivity  at  home  or  amid  the  flocks,  but, 
in  the  chase,  scoured  the  forests.  Having  thus  gained 
strength,  both  in  body  and  spirit,  they  now  were  not  only  able 
to  withstand  wild  beasts,  but  attacked  robbers  laden  with 
booty,  and  divided  the  spoils  with  the  shepherds,  in  whose 
company,  as  the  number  of  their  young  associates  increased 
daily,  they  carried  on  business  and  pleasure. 

Even  in  these  early  times  it  is  said  that  the  festival  of  the 
Lupercal,  as  now  celebrated,  was  solemnized  on  the  Palatine 
Hill,  which  was  first  called  Pallantium,  from  Pallanteum,  a 
city  of  Arcadia,  and  afterward  Mount  Palatius.  There  Evan- 
der,  who,  belonging  to  the  above  tribe  of  the  Arcadians,  had 
for  many  years  before  occupied  these  districts,  is  said  to  have 
appointed  the  observance  of  a  solemn  festival,  introduced  from 
Arcadia,  in  which  naked  youths  ran  about  doing  honour  in 
wanton  sport  to  Pan  Lycaeus,  who  was  afterward  called  Inuus 
by  the  Romans.  When  they  were  engaged  in  this  festival,  as 
its  periodical  solemnization  was  well  known,  a  band  of  rob- 
bers, enraged  at  the  loss  of  some  booty,  lay  in  wait  for  them, 
and  took  Remus  prisoner,  Romulus  having  vigorously  de- 
fended himself :  the  captive  Remus  they  delivered  up  to  King 
Amulius,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  bring  accusations  against 

1  Livy  ignores  the  more  accepted  and  prettier  tradition  that  this  event 
took  place  where  the  sacred  fig-tree  originally  stood,  and  that  later  it  was 
miraculously  transplanted  to  the  comitium  by  Attius  Navius,  the  famous 
augur,  "That  it  might  stand  in  the  midst  of  the  meetings  of  the  Ro- 
mans."— D.  O. 


6  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.C. 753 

him.  They  made  it  the  principal  charge  that  having  made 
incursions  into  Numitor's  lands,  and,  having  assembled  a 
band  of  young  men,  they  had  driven  off  their  booty  after 
the  manner  of  enemies.  Accordingly,  Remus  was  delivered 
up  to  Numitor  for  punishment.  Now  from  the  very  first 
Faustulus  had  entertained  hopes  that  the  boys  who  were  be- 
ing brought  up  by  him,  were  of  royal  blood :  for  he  both  knew 
that  the  children  had  been  exposed  by  the  king's  orders,  and 
that  the  time,  at  which  he  had  taken  them  up,  coincided  ex- 
actly with  that  period :  but  he  had  been  unwilling  to  disclose 
the  matter,  as  yet  not  ripe  for  discovery,  till  either  a  fitting 
opportunity  or  the  necessity  for  it  should  arise.  Necessity 
came  first.  Accordingly,  urged  by  fear,  he  disclosed  the 
whole  affair  to  Romulus.  By  accident  also,  Numitor,  while 
he  had  Remus  in  custody,  having  heard  that  the  brothers  were 
twins,  by  comparing  their  age  and  their  natural  disposition 
entirely  free  from  servility,  felt  his  mind  struck  by  the  recollec- 
tion of  his  grandchildren,  and  by  frequent  inquiries  came  to 
the  conclusion  he  had  already  formed,  so  that  he  was  not  far 
from  openly  acknowledging  Remus.  Accordingly  a  plot  was 
concerted  against  the  king  on  all  sides.  Romulus,  not  ac-, 
companied  by  a  body  of  young  men — for  he  was  not  equal  to 
open  violence — but  having  commanded  the  shepherds  to  come 
to  the  palace  by  different  roads  at  a  fixed  time,  made  an  at- 
tack upon  the  king,  while  Remus,  having  got  together  another 
party  from  Numitor's  house,  came  to  his  assistance;  and  so 
they  slew  the  king. 

Numitor,  at  the  beginning  of  the  fray,  giving  out  that 
enemies  had  invaded  the  city  and  attacked  the  palace,  after 
he  had  drawn  off  the  Alban  youth  to  the  citadel  to  secure 
it  with  an  armed  garrison,  when  he  saw  the  young  men,  after 
they  had  compassed  the  king's  death,  advancing  toward  him 
to  offer  congratulations,  immediately  summoned  a  meeting  of 
the  people,  and  recounted  his  brother's  unnatural  behaviour 
toward  him,  the  extraction  of  his  grandchildren,  the  manner 
of  their  birth,  bringing  up,  and  recognition,  and  went  on  to 
inform  them  of  the  king's  death,  and  that  he  was  responsible 
for  it.  The  young  princes  advanced  through  the  midst  of  the 
assembly  with  their  band  in  orderly  array,  and,  after  they  had 
saluted  their  grandfather  as  king,  a  succeeding  shout  of  ap- 
probation, issuing  from  the  whole  multitude,  ratified  for  him 
the  name  and  authority  of  sovereign.  The  government  of 
Alba  being  thus  intrusted  to  Numitor,  Romulus  and  Remus 
were  seized  with  the  desire  of  building  a  city  on  the  spot  where 
they  had  been  exposed  and  brought  up.  Indeed,  the  number 


B.  C.  753]  FOUNDING  THE   CITY  7 

of  Alban  and  Latin  inhabitants  was  too  great  for  the  city; 
the  shepherds  also  were  included  among  that  population,  and 
all  these  readily  inspired  hopes  that  Alba  and  Lavinium  would 
be  insignificant  in  comparison  with  that  city,  which  was  in- 
tended to  be  built.  But  desire  of  rule,  the  bane  of  their  grand- 
father, interrupted  these  designs,  and  thence  arose  a  shameful 
quarrel  from  a  sufficiently  amicable  beginning.  For  as  they 
were  twins,  and  consequently  the  respect  for  seniority  could 
not  settle  the  point,  they  agreed  to  leave  it  to  the  gods,  under 
whose  protection  the  place  was,  to  choose  by  augury  which  of 
them  should  give  a  name  to  the  new  city,  and  govern  it  when 
built.  Romulus  chose  the  Palatine  and  Remus  the  Aventine, 
as  points  of  observation  for  taking  the  auguries. 

It  is  said  that  an  omen  came  to  Remus  first,  six  vultures ; 
and  when,  after  the  omen  had  been  declared,  twice  that  num- 
ber presented  themselves  to  Romulus,  each  was  hailed  king  by 
his  own  party,  the  former  claiming  sovereign  power  on  the 
ground  of  priority  of  time,  the  latter  on  account  of  the  num- 
ber of  birds.  Thereupon,  having  met  and  exchanged  angry 
words,  from  the  strife  of  angry  feelings  they  turned  to  blood- 
shed :  there  Remus  fell  from  a  blow  received  in  the  crowd. 
A  more  common  account  is  that  Remus,  in  derision  of  his 
brother,  leaped  over  the  newly-erected  walls,  and  was  there- 
upon slain  by  Romulus  in  a  fit  of  passion,  who,  mocking  him, 
added  words  to  this  effect :  "  So  perish  every  one  hereafter, 
who  shall  leap  over  my  walls."  Thus  Romulus  obtained  pos- 
session of  supreme  power  for  himself  alone.  The  city,  when 
built,  was  called  after  the  name  of  its  founder.1  He  first  pro- 
ceeded to  fortify  the  Palatine  Hill,  on  which  he  himself  had 
been  brought  up.  He  offered  sacrifices  to  Hercules,  according 
to  the  Grecian  rite,  as  they  had  been  instituted  by  Evander; 
to  the  other  gods,  according  to  the  Alban  rite.  There  is  a 
tradition  that  Hercules,  having  slain  Geryon,  drove  off  his 
oxen,  which  were  of  surpassing  beauty,2  to  that  spot :  and  that 
he  lay  down  in  a  grassy  spot  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Tiber, 
where  he  had  swam  across,  driving  the  cattle  before  him, 
to  refresh  them  with  rest  and  luxuriant  pasture,  being  also 
himself  fatigued  with  journeying.  There,  when  sleep  had 
overpowered  him,  heavy  as  he  was  with  food  and  wine,  a  shep- 

1  According  to  Varro,  Rome  was  founded  B.C.  753;  according  to  Cato, 
B.  c.  751.  Livy  here  derives  Roma  from  Romulus,  but  this  is  rejected  by 
modern  etymologists;  according  to  Mommsen  the  word  means  "stream- 
town,"  from  its  position  on  the  Tiber. 

*  The  remarkable  beauty  of  the  white  or  mouse-coloured  cattle  of  cen- 
tral Italy  gives  a.  touch  of  realism  to  this  story. — D,  O, 


8  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [6.0.753 

herd  who  dwelt  in  the  neighbourhood,  by  name  Cacus,  prid- 
ing himself  on  his  strength,  and  charmed  with  the  beauty  of 
the  cattle,  desired  to  carry  them  off  as  booty;  but  because,  if 
he  had  driven  the  herd  in  front  of  him  to  the  cave,  their  tracks 
must  have  conducted  their  owner  thither  in  his  search,  he 
dragged  the  most  beautiful  of  them  by  their  tails  backward 
into  a  cave.  Hercules,  aroused  from  sleep  at  dawn,  having 
looked  over  his  herd  and  observed  that  some  of  their  number 
were  missing,  went  straight  to  the  nearest  cave,  to  see  whether 
perchance  their  tracks  led  thither.  When  he  saw  that  they 
were  all  turned  away  from  it  and  led  in  no  other  direction, 
troubled  and  not  knowing  what  to  make  up  his  mind  to 
do,  he  commenced  to  drive  off  his 'herd  from  so  dangerous  a 
spot.  Thereupon  some  of  the  cows  that  were  driven  away, 
lowed,  as  they  usually  do,  when  they  missed  those  that  were 
left ;  and  the  lowings  of  those  that  were  shut  in  being  heard  in 
answer  from  the  cave,  caused  Hercules  to  turn  round.  And 
when  Cacus  attempted  to  prevent  him  by  force  as  he  was  ad- 
vancing toward  the  cave,  he  was  struck  with  a  club  and  slain, 
while  vainly  calling  upon  the  shepherds  to  assist  him.  At 
that  time  Evander,  who  was  an  exile  from  the  Peloponnesus, 
governed  the  country  more  by  his  personal  ascendency  than 
by  absolute  sway.  He  was  a  man  held  in  reverence  on  ac- 
count of  the  wonderful  art  of  writing,  an  entirely  new  discov- 
ery to  men  ignorant  of  accomplishments,1  and  still  more  re- 
vered on  account  of  the  supposed  divinity  of  his  mother  Car- 
menta,  whom  those  peoples  had  marvelled  at  as  a  prophetess 
before  the  arrival  of  the  Sybil  in  Italy.  This  Evander,  roused 
by  the  assembling  of  the  shepherds  as  they  hastily  crowded 
round  the  stranger,  who  was  charged  with  open  murder,  after 
he  heard  an  account  of  the  deed  and  the  cause  of  it,  gazing 
upon  the  personal  appearance  and  mien  of  the  hero,  consider- 
ably more  dignified  and  majestic  than  that  of  a  man,  asked  who 
he  was.  As  soon  as  he  heard  the  name  of  the  hero,  and  that  of 
his  father  and  native  country,  "  Hail !  "  said  he,  "  Hercules,  son 
of  Jupiter!  my  mother,  truthful  interpreter  of  the  will  of  the 
gods,  has  declared  to  me  that  thou  art  destined  to  increase  the 
number  of  the  heavenly  beings,  and  that  on  this  spot  an  altar 
shall  be  dedicated  to  thee,  which  in  after  ages  a  people  most 
mighty  on  earth  shall  call  Greatest,  and  honour  in  accordance 
with  rites  instituted  by  thee."  Hercules,  having  given  him 
his  right  hand,  declared  that  he  accepted  the  prophetic  in- 

1  The  introduction  of  the  art  of  writing  among  the  Romans  was  ascribed 
to  Evander.  The  Roman  alphabet  was  derived  from  the  Greek,  through 
the  Grecian  (Chalcidian)  colony  at  Cum*. 


B.C.  753-717]  FOUNDING  THE   CITY  9 

timation,  and  would  fulfil  the  predictions  of  the  fates,  by 
building  and  dedicating  an  altar.  Thereon  then  for  the  first 
time  sacrifice  was  offered  to  Hercules  with  a  choice  heifer 
taken  from  the  herd,  the  Potitii  and  Pinarii,  the  most  distin- 
guished families  who  then  inhabited  those  parts,  being  invited 
to  serve  at  the  feast.  It  so  happened  that  the  Potitii  presented 
themselves  in  due  time,  and  the  entrails  were  set  before  them : 
but  the  Pinarii  did  not  arrive  until  the  entrails  had  been  eaten 
up,  to  share  the  remainder  of  the  feast.  From  that  time  it  be- 
came a  settled  institution,  that,  as  long  as  the  Pinarian  family 
existed,  they  should  not  eat  of  the  entrails  of  the  sacrificial  vic- 
tims. The  Potitii,  fully  instructed  by  Evander,  discharged 
the  duties  of  chief  priests  of  this  sacred  function  for  many  gen- 
erations, until  their  whole  race  became  extinct,  in  consequence 
of  this  office,  the  solemn  prerogative  of  their  family,  being 
delegated  to  public  slaves.  These  were  the  only  religious 
rites  that  Romulus  at  that  time  adopted  from  those  of  foreign 
countries,  being  even  then  an  advocate  of  immortality  won  by 
merit,  to  which  the  destiny  marked  out  for  him  was  conduct- 
ing him. 

The  duties  of  religion  having  been  thus  duly  completed, 
the  people  were  summoned  to  a  public  meeting :  and,  as  they 
could  not  be  united  and  incorporated  into  one  body  by  any 
other  means  save  legal  ordinances,  Romulus  gave  them  a  code 
of  laws :  and,  judging  that  these  would  only  be  respected  by 
a  nation  of  rustics,  if  he  dignified  himself  with  the  insignia  of 
royalty,  he  clothed  himself  with  greater  majesty — above  all, 
by  taking  twelve  lictors  to  attend  him,  but  also  in  regard  to  his 
other  appointments.  Some  are  of  opinion  that  he  was  influ- 
enced in  his  choice  of  that  number  by  that  of  the  birds  which 
had  foretold  that  sovereign  power  should  be  his  when  the 
auguries  were  taken.  I  myself  am  not  indisposed  to  follow 
the  opinion  of  those,  who  are  inclined  to  believe  that  it  was 
from  the  neighbouring  Etruscans — from  whom  the  curule 
chair  and  purple-bordered  toga  were  borrowed — that  the  ap- 
paritors of  this  class,  as  well  as  the  number  itself,  were  in- 
troduced: and  that  the  Etruscans  employed  such  a  number 
because,  as  their  king  was  elected  from  twelve  states  in  com- 
mon, each  state  assigned  him  one  lictor. 

In  the  meantime,  the  city  was  enlarged  by  taking  in  vari- 
ous plots  of  ground  for  the  erection  of  buildings,  while  they 
built  rather  in  the  hope  of  an  increased  population  in  the  fu- 
ture, than  in  view  of  the  actual  number  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  city  at  that  time.  Next,  that  the  size  of  the  city  might 
not  be  without  efficiency,  in  order  to  increase  the  population, 


10  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.753-717 

following  the  ancient  policy  of  founders  of  cities,  who,  by 
bringing  together  to  their  side  a  mean  and  ignoble  multitude, 
were  in  the  habit  of  falsely  asserting  that  an  offspring  was  born 
to  them  from  the  earth,  he  opened  as  a  sanctuary  the  place 
which,  now  inclosed,  is  known  as  the  "  two  groves,"  and 
which  people  come  upon  when  descending  from  the  Capitol. 
Thither,  a  crowd  of  all  classes  from  the  neighbouring  peoples, 
without  distinction,  whether  freemen  or  slaves,  eager  for 
change,  flocked  for  refuge,  and  therein  lay  the  foundation  of 
the  city's  strength,  corresponding  to  the  commencement  of 
its  enlargement.  Having  now  no  reason  to  be  dissatisfied 
with  his  strength,  he  next  instituted  a  standing  council  to 
direct  that  strength.  He  created  one  hundred  senators,  either 
because  that  number  was  sufficient,  or  because  there  were  only 
one  hundred  who  could  be  so  elected.  Anyhow  they  were 
called  fathers  *  by  way  of  respect,  and  their  descendants  pa- 
tricians. 

By  this  time  the  Roman  state  was  so  powerful,  that  it  was 
a  match  for  any  of  the  neighbouring  states  in  war :  but  owing 
to  the  scarcity  of  women  its  greatness  was  not  likely  to  outlast 
the  existing  generation,  seeing  that  the  Romans  had  no  hope 
of  issue  at  home,  and  they  did  not  intermarry  with  their  neigh- 
bours. So  then,  by  the  advice  of  the  senators,  Romulus  sent 
around  ambassadors  to  the  neighbouring  states,  to  solicit  an 
alliance  and  the  right  of  intermarriage  for  his  new  subjects, 
saying,  that  cities,  like  everything  else,  rose  from  the  humblest 
beginnings:  next,  that  those  which  the  gods  and  their  own 
merits  assisted,  gained  for  themselves  great  power  and  high 
renown:  that  he  knew  full  well  that  the  gods  had  aided  the 
first  beginnings  of  Rome  and  that  merit  on  their  part  would 
not  be  wanting:  therefore,  as  men,  let  them  not  be  reluctant 
to  mix  their  blood  and  stock  with  men.  The  embassy  no- 
where obtained  a  favourable  hearing :  but,  although  the  neigh- 
bouring peoples  treated  it  with  such  contempt,  yet  at  the  same 
time  they  dreaded  the  growth  of  such  a  mighty  power  in  their 
midst  to  the  danger  of  themselves  and  of  their  posterity.  In 
most  cases  when  they  were  dismissed  they  were  asked  the 
question,  whether  they  had  opened  a  sanctuary  for  women  also : 
for  that  in  that  way  only  could  they  obtain  suitable  matches. 
The  Roman  youths  were  bitterly  indignant  at  this,  and  the 

1  The  title  patres  originally  signified  the  heads  of  families,  and  was  in 
early  times  used  of  the  patrician  senate,  as  selected  from  these.  When 
later,  plebeians  were  admitted  into  the  senate,  the  members  of  the  senate 
were  all  called  patres,  while  patricians,  as  opposed  to  plebeians,  enjoyed 
certain  distinctions  and  privileges. 


B.  C.  753-717]       THE   RAPE  OF  THE  SABINES  II 

matter  began  unmistakeably  to  point  to  open  violence.  Romu- 
lus, in  order  to  provide  a  fitting  opportunity  and  place  for 
this,  dissembling  his  resentment,  with  this  purpose  in  view,  in- 
stituted games  to  be  solemnized  every  year  in  honour  of  Nep- 
tunus  Equester,  which  he  called  Consualia.  He  then  ordered 
the  show  to  be  proclaimed  among  the  neighbouring  peoples ; 
and  the  Romans  prepared  to  solemnize  it  with  all  the  pomp 
with  which  they  were  then  acquainted  or  were  able  to  exhibit, 
in  order  to  make  the  spectacle  famous,  and  an  object  of  ex- 
pectation. Great  numbers  assembled,  being  also  desirous  of 
seeing  the  new  city,  especially  all  the  nearest  peoples,  the 
Caeninenses,  Crustumini,  and  Antemnates :  the  entire  Sabine 
population  attended  with  their  wives  and  children.  They 
were  hospitably  invited  to  the  different  houses:  and,  when 
they  saw  the  position  of  the  city,  its  fortified  walls,  and  how 
crowded  with  houses  it  was,  they  were  astonished  that  the 
power  of  Rome  had  increased  so  rapidly.  When  the  time 
of  the  show  arrived,  and  their  eyes  and  minds  alike  were 
intent  upon  it,  then,  according  to  preconcerted  arrangement, 
a  disturbance  was  made,  and,  at  a  given  signal,  the  Roman 
youths  rushed  in  different  directions  to  carry  off  the  unmar- 
ried women.  A  great  number  were  carried  off  at  hap-hazard, 
by  those  into  whose  hands  they  severally  fell :  some  of  the 
common  people,  to  whom  the  task  had  been  assigned,  con- 
veyed to  their  homes  certain  women  of  surpassing  beauty,  who 
were  destined  for  the  leading  senators.  They  say  that  one, 
far  distinguished  beyond  the  rest  in  form  and  beauty,  was  car- 
ried off  by  the  party  of  a  certain  Talassius,  and  that,  when  sev- 
eral people  wanted  to  know  to  whom  they  were  carrying  her, 
a  cry  was  raised  from  time  to  time,  to  prevent  her  being  mo- 
lested, that  she  was  being  carried  to  Talassius :  and  that  from 
this  the  word  was  used  in  connection  with  marriages.  The 
festival  being  disturbed  by  the  alarm  thus  caused,  the  sorrow- 
ing parents  of  the  maidens  retired,  complaining  of  the  violated 
compact  of  hospitality,  and  invoking  the  god,  to  whose  solemn 
festival  and  games  they  had  come,  having  been  deceived  by 
the  pretence  of  religion  and  good  faith.  Nor  did  the  maidens 
entertain  better  hopes  for  themselves,  or  feel  less  indignation. 
Romulus,  however,  went  about  in  person  and  pointed  out  that 
what  had  happened  was  due  to  the  pride  of  their  fathers,  in 
that  they  had  refused  the  privilege  of  intermarriage  to  their 
neighbours ;  but  that,  notwithstanding,  they  would  be  lawfully 
wedded,  and  enjoy  a  share  of  all  their  possessions  and  civil 
rights,  and — a  thing  dearer  than  all  else  to  the  human  race — 
the  society  of  their  common  children :  only  let  them  calm  their 


12  LIVY'S   ROMAN    HISTORY  [B.  C.  753-717 

angry  feelings,  and  bestow  their  affections  on  those  on  whom 
fortune  had  bestowed  their  bodies.  Esteem  (said  he)  often 
arose  subsequent  to  wrong :  and  they  would  find  them  better 
husbands  for  the  reason  that  each  of  them  would  endeavour, 
to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  after  having  discharged,  as  far  as 
his  part  was  concerned,  the  duty  of  a  husband,  to  quiet  the 
longing  for  country  and  parents.  To  this  the  blandishments 
of  the  husbands  were  added,  who  excused  what  had  been  done 
on  the  plea  of  passion  and  love,  a  form  of  entreaty  that  works 
most  successfully  upon  the  feelings  of  women.1 

By  this  time  the  minds  of  the  maidens  were  considerably 
soothed,  but  their  parents,  especially  by  putting  on  the  garb 
of  mourning,  and  by  their  tears  and  complaints,  stirred  up  the 
neighbouring  states.  Nor  did  they  confine  their  feelings  of 
indignation  to  their  own  home  only,  but  they  flocked  from 
all  quarters  to  Titus  Tatius,  king  of  the  Sabines,  and  embassies 
crowded  thither,  because  the  name  of  Tatius  was  held  in  the 
greatest  esteem  in  those  quarters.  The  Caeninenses,  Crus- 
tumini,  and  Antemnates  were  the  people  who  were  chiefly  af- 
fected by  the  outrage.  As  Tatius  and  the  Sabines  appeared  to 
them  to  be  acting  in  too  dilatory  a  manner,  these  three  peoples 
by  mutual  agreement  among  themselves  made  preparations 
for  war  unaided.  However,  not  even  the  Crustumini  and  An- 
temnates bestirred  themselves  with  sufficient  activity  to  satisfy 
the  hot-headedness  and  anger  of  the  Cseninenses :  accord- 
ingly the  people  of  Caenina,  unaided,  themselves  attacked  the 
Roman  territory.  But  Romulus  with  his  army  met  them 
while  they  were  ravaging  the  country  in  straggling  parties, 
and  in  a  trifling  engagement  convinced  them  that  anger  unac- 
companied by  strength  is  fruitless.  He  routed  their  army  and 
put  it  to  flight,  followed  in  pursuit  of  it  when  routed,  cut  down 
their  king  in  battle  and  stripped  him  of  his  armour,  and,  hav- 
ing slain  the  enemy's  leader,  took  the  city  at  the  first  assault. 
Then,  having  led  back  his  victorious  army,  being  a  man  both 
distinguished  for  his  achievements,  and  one  equally  skilful  at 
putting  them  in  the  most  favourable  light,  he  ascended  the 
Capitol,  carrying  suspended  on  a  portable  frame,  cleverly  con- 
trived for  that  purpose,  the  spoils  of  the  enemy's  general, 
whom  he  had  slain :  there,  having  laid  them  down  at  the  foot 

1  This  story  of  the  rape  of  the  Sabines  belongs  to  the  class  of  what  are 
called  "  etiological "  myths — i.  e.,  stories  invented  to  account  for  a  rite  or 
custom,  or  to  explain  local  names  or  characteristics.  The  custom  pre- 
vailed among  Greeks  and  Romans  of  the  bridegroom  pretending  to  carry 
off  the  bride  from  her  home  by  force.  Such  a  custom  still  exists  among 
the  nomad  tribes  of  Asia  Minor.  The  rape  of  the  Sabine  women  was 
invented  to  account  for  this  custom. 


B.  c.  753-717]         WAR  WITH   THE   SABINES  13 

of  an  oak  held  sacred  by  the  shepherds,  at  the  same  time  that 
he  presented  the  offering,  he  marked  out  the  boundaries  for  a 
temple  of  Jupiter,  and  bestowed  a  surname  on  the  god.  "  Ju- 
piter Feretrius,"  said  he,  "  I,  King  Romulus,  victorious  over 
my  foes,  offer  to  thee  these  royal  arms,  and  dedicate  to  thee  a 
temple  within  those  quarters,  which  I  have  just  now  marked 
out  in  my  mind,  to  be  a  resting-place  for  the  spolia  opima, 
which  posterity,  following  my  example,  shall  bring  hither  on 
slaying  the  kings  or  generals  of  the  enemy."  This  is  the  ori- 
gin of  that  temple,  the  first  that  was  ever  consecrated  at  Rome. 
It  was  afterward  the  will  of  the  gods,  that  neither  the  utter- 
ances of  the  founder  of  the  temple,  in  which  he  solemnly  de- 
clared that  his  posterity  would  bring  such  spoils  thither, 
should  be  spoken  in  vain,  and  that  the  honour  of  the  offering 
should  not  be  rendered  common  owing  to  the  number  of  those 
who  enjoyed  it.  In  the  course  of  so  many  years  and  so  many 
wars  the  spolia  opima  were  only  twice  gained:  so  rare  has 
been  the  successful  attainment  of  this  honour.1 

While  the  Romans  were  thus  engaged  in  those  parts,  the 
army  of  the  Antemnates  made  a  hostile  attack  upon  the  Ro- 
man territories,  seizing  the  opportunity  when  they  were  left 
unguarded.  Against  these  in  like  manner  a  Roman  legion 
was  led  out  in  haste  and  surprised  them  while  straggling  in  the 
country.  Thus  the  enemy  were  routed  at  the  first  shout  and 
charge :  their  town  was  taken :  Romulus,  amid  his  rejoic- 
ings at  this  double  victory,  was  entreated  by  his  wife  Hersilia, 
in  consequence  of  the  importunities  of  the  captured  women, 
to  pardon  their  fathers  and  admit  them  to  the  privileges  of 
citizenship ;  that  the  commonwealth  could  thus  be  knit  to- 
gether by  reconciliation.  The  request  was  readily  granted. 
After  that  he  set  out  against  the  Crustumini,  who  were  begin- 
ning hostilities :  in  their  case,  as  their  courage  had  been 
damped  by  the  disasters  of  others,  the  struggle  was  less 
keen.  Colonies  were  sent  to  both  places :  more,  however, 
were  found  to  give  in  their  names  for  Crustuminum,  because 
of  the  fertility  of  the  soil.  Great  numbers  also  migrated  from 
thence  to  Rome,  chiefly  of  the  parents  and  relatives  of  the 
women  who  had  been  carried  off. 

The  last  war  broke  out  on  the  part  of  the  Sabines,  and  this 
was  by  far  the  most  formidable :  for  nothing  was  done  under 
the  influence  of  anger  or  covetousness,  nor  did  they  give  in- 

1  The  spolia  opima  (grand  spoils) — a  term  used  to  denote  the  arms 
taken  by  one  general  from  another — were  only  gained  twice  afterward 
during  the  history  of  the  republic  :  in  B.  c.  437,  when  A.  Cornelius  Cossus 
slew  Lars  Tolumnius  of  Veii  ;  and  in  B.  c.  222,  when  the  consul  M. 
Claudius  Marcellus  slew  Viridomarus,  chief  of  the  Insubrian  Gauls. 


14  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [8.0.753-717 

dications  of  hostilities  before  they  had  actually  begun  them. 
Cunning  also  was  combined  with  prudence.  Spurius  Tar- 
peius  was  in  command  of  the  Roman  citadel :  his  maiden 
daughter,  who  at  the  time  had  gone  by  chance  outside  the 
walls  to  fetch  water  for  sacrifice,  was  bribed  by  Tatius,  to  ad- 
mit some  armed  soldiers  into  the  citadel.  After  they  were  ad- 
mitted, they  crushed  her  to  death  by  heaping  their  arms  upon 
her :  either  that  the  citadel  might  rather  appear  to  have  been 
taken  by  storm,  or  for  the  sake  of  setting  forth  a  warning, 
that  faith  should  never  on  any  occasion  be  kept  with  a  be- 
trayer. The  following  addition  is  made  to  the  story :  that,  as 
the  Sabines  usually  wore  golden  bracelets  of  great  weight  on 
their  left  arm  and  rings  of  great  beauty  set  with  precious 
stones,  she  bargained  with  them  for  what  they  had  on  their 
left  hands ;  and  that  therefore  shields  were  heaped  upon  her 
instead  of  presents  of  gold.  Some  say  that,  in  accordance 
with  the  agreement  that  they  should  deliver  up  what  was  on 
their  left  hands,  she  expressly  demanded  their  shields,  and 
that,  as  she  seemed  to  be  acting  treacherously,  she  herself  was 
slain  by  the  reward  she  had  chosen  for  herself. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  the  Sabines  held  the  citadel,  and  on  the 
next  day,  when  the  Roman  army,  drawn  up  in  order  of  battle, 
had  occupied  all  the  valley  between  the  Palatine  and  Capito- 
line  Hills,  they  did  not  descend  from  thence  into  the  plain  until 
the  Romans,  stimulated  by  resentment  and  the  desire  of  recov- 
ering the  citadel,  advanced  up  hill  to  meet  them.  The  chiefs 
on  both  sides  encouraged  the  fight,  on  the  side  of  the  Sabines 
Mettius  Curtius,  on  the  side  of  the  Romans  Hostius  Hostilius. 
The  latter,  in  the  front  of  the  battle,  on  unfavourable  ground, 
supported  the  fortunes  of  the  Romans  by  his  courage  and 
boldness.  When  Hostius  fell,  the  Roman  line  immediately 
gave  way,  and,  being  routed,  was  driven  as  far  as  the  old  gate 
of  the  Palatium.  Romulus  himself  also,  carried  away  by  the 
crowd  of  fugitives,  cried,  uplifting  his  arms  to  heaven :  "  O 
Jupiter,  it  was  at  the  bidding  of  thy  omens,  that  here  on  the 
Palatine  I  laid  the  first  foundations  for  the  city.  The  citadel, 
purchased  by  crime,  is  now  in  possession  of  the  Sabines : 
thence  they  are  advancing  hither  in  arms,  having  passed  the 
valley  between.  But  do  thou,  O  father  of  gods  and  men,  keep 
back  the  enemy  from  hence  at  least,  dispel  the  terror  of  the 
Romans,  and  check  their  disgraceful  flight.  On  this  spot  I 
vow  to  build  a  temple  to  thee  as  Jupiter  Stator,  to  be  a  monu- 
ment to  posterity  that  the  city  has  been  preserved  by  thy  ready 
aid."  Having  offered  up  these  prayers,  as  if  he  had  felt  that 
they  had  been  heard,  he  cried :  "  From  this  position,  O  Ro- 


B.C.  753-717]          WAR   WITH   THE  SABINES  15 

mans,  Jupiter,  greatest  and  best,  bids  you  halt  and  renew  the 
fight."  The  Romans  halted  as  if  ordered  by  a  voice  from 
heaven.  Romulus  himself  hastened  to  the  front.  Mettius 
Curtius,  on  the  side  of  the  Sabines,  had  rushed  down  from  the 
citadel  at  the  head  of  his  troops  and  driven  the  Romans  in 
disordered  array  over  the  whole  space  of  ground  where  the 
Forum  now  is.  He  had  almost  reached  the  gate  of  the  Pala- 
tium,  crying  out :  "  We  have  conquered  our  perfidious  friends, 
our  cowardly  foes :  now  they  know  that  fighting  with  men  is 
a  very  different  thing  from  ravishing  maidens."  Upon  him, 
as  he  uttered  these  boasts,  Romulus  made  an  attack  with  a 
band  of  his  bravest  youths.  Mettius  then  happened  to  be 
fighting  on  horseback :  on  that  account  his  repulse  was  easier. 
When  he  was  driven  back,  the  Romans  followed  in  pursuit: 
and  the  remainder  of  the  Roman  army,  fired  by  the  bravery  of 
the  king,  routed  the  Sabines.  Mettius,  his  horse  taking 
fright  at  the  noise  of  his  pursuers,  rode  headlong  into  a  mo- 
rass :  this  circumstance  drew  off  the  attention  of  the  Sabines 
also  at  the  danger  of  so  high  a  personage.  He  indeed,  his 
own  party  beckoning  and  calling  to  him,  gaining  heart  from 
the  encouraging  shouts  of  many  of  his  friends,  made  good  his 
escape.  The  Romans  and  Sabines  renewed  the  battle  in  the 
valley  between  the  two  hills :  but  the  advantage  rested  with 
the  Romans. 

At  this  crisis  the  Sabine  women,  from  the  outrage  on 
whom  the  war  had  arisen,  with  dishevelled  hair  and  torn  gar- 
ments, the  timidity  natural  to  women  being  overcome  by  the 
sense  of  their  calamities,  were  emboldened  to  fling  themselves 
into  the  midst  of  the  flying  weapons,  and,  rushing  across,  to 
part  the  incensed  combatants  and  assuage  their  wrath :  im- 
ploring their  fathers  on  the  one  hand  and  their  husbands  on 
the  other,  as  fathers-in-law  and  sons-in-law,  not  to  besprinkle 
themselves  with  impious  blood,  nor  to  fix  the  stain  of  murder 
on  their  offspring,  the  one  side  on  their  grandchildren,  the 
other  on  their  children.  "  If,"  said  they,  "  you  are  dissatisfied 
with  the  relationship  between  you,  and  with  our  marriage, 
turn  your  resentment  against  us ;  it  is  we  who  are  the  cause  of 
war,  of  wounds  and  bloodshed  to  our  husbands  and  parents: 
it  will  be  better  for  us  to  perish  than  to  live  widowed  or 
orphans  without  one  or  other  of  you."  This  incident  affected 
both  the  people  and  the  leaders ;  silence  and  sudden  quiet  fol- 
lowed; the  leaders  thereupon  came  forward  to  conclude  a 
treaty ;  and  not  only  concluded  a  peace,  but  formed  one  state 
out  of  two.  They  united  the  kingly  power,  but  transferred  the 
entire  sovereignty  to  Rome.  Rome  having  thus  been  made  a 


16  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  753-717 

double  state,  that  some  benefit  at  least  might  be  conferred  on 
the  Sabines,  they  were  called  Quirites  from  Cures.  To  serve 
as  a  memorial  of  that  battle,  they  called  the  place — where 
Curtius,  after  having  emerged  from  the  deep  morass,  set  his 
horse  in  shallow  water — the  Lacus  Curtius.1 

This  welcome  peace,  following  suddenly  on  so  melancholy 
a  war,  endeared  the  Sabine  women  still  more  to  their  husbands 
and  parents,  and  above  all  to  Romulus  himself.  Accordingly, 
when  dividing  the  people  into  thirty  curise,  he  called  the  cu- 
riae  after  their  names.  While  the  number  of  the  women  were 
undoubtedly  considerably  greater  than  this,  it  is  not  recorded 
whether  they  were  chosen  for  their  age,  their  own  rank  or  that 
of  their  husbands,  or  by  lot,  to  give  names  to  the  curiae.  At  the 
same  time  also  three  centuries  of  knights  were  enrolled:  the 
Ramnenses  were  so  called  from  Romulus,  the  Titienses  from 
Titus  Tatius:  in  regard  to  the  Luceres,  the  meaning  of  the 
name  and  its  origin  is  uncertain.2  From  that  time  forward  the 
two  kings  enjoyed  the  regal  power  not  only  in  common,  but 
also  in  perfect  harmony. 

Several  years  afterward,  some  relatives  of  King  Tatius  ill- 
treated  the  ambassadors  of  the  Laurentines,  and  on  the  Lau- 
rentines  beginning  proceedings  according  to  the  rights  of 
nations,  the  influence  and  entreaties  of  his  friends  had  more 
weight  with  Tatius.  In  this  manner  he  drew  upon  himself 
the  punishment  that  should  have  fallen  upon  them :  for,  hav- 
ing gone  to  Lavinium  on  the  occasion  of  a  regularly  recurring 
sacrifice,  he  was  slain  in  a  disturbance  which  took  place  there. 
They  say  that  Romulus  resented  this  less  than  the  event  de- 
manded, either  because  partnership  in  sovereign  power  is 
never  cordially  kept  up,  or  because  he  thought  that  he  had 
been  deservedly  slain.  Accordingly,  while  he  abstained  from 
going  to  war,  the  treaty  between  the  cities  of  Rome  and  La- 
vinium was  renewed,  that  at  any  rate  the  wrongs  of  the  am- 
bassadors and  the  murder  of  the  king  might  be  expiated. 

With  these  people,  indeed,  there  was  peace  contrary  to  ex- 
pectations :  but  another  war  broke  out  much  nearer  home 

1  The  place  afterward  retained  its  name,  even  when  filled  up  and  dry. 
Livy  (Book  VII)  gives  a  different  reason  for  the  name  :  that  it  was  so 
called  from  one  Marcus  Curtius  having  sprung,  armed,  and  on  horseback, 
several  hundred  years  ago  (B.  c.  362),  into  a  gulf  that  suddenly  opened  in 
the  forum;  it  being  imagined  that  it  would  not  close  until  an  offering  was 
made  of  what  was  most  valuable  in  the  state — i.  e.,  a  warrior  armed  and 
on  horseback.  According  to  Varro,  it  was  a  locus  fulguritus  (i.  e.,  struck 
by  lightning),  which  was  inclosed  by  a  consul  named  Curtius. 

*  Supposed  to  be  derived  from  "  Lucumo,"  the  name  or,  according  to 
more  accepted  commentators,  title  of  an  Etruscan  chief  who  came  to  help 
Romulus.— D.  O. 


B.  C.  716]  DEFEAT   OF   THE   FIDENATES  17 

and  almost  at  the  city's  gates.  The  Fidenates,1  being  of  opin- 
ion that  a  power  in  too  close  proximity  to  themselves  was  gain- 
ing strength,  hastened  to  make  war  before  the  power  of  the 
Romans  should  attain  the  greatness  it  was  evidently  destined 
to  reach.  An  armed  band  of  youths  was  sent  into  Roman  ter- 
ritory and  all  the  territories  between  the  city  and  the  Fidenae 
was  ravaged.  Then,  turning  to  the  left,  because  on  the  right 
the  Tiber  was  a  barrier  against  them,  they  continued  to  rav- 
age the  country,  to  the  great  consternation  of  the  peasantry : 
the  sudden  alarm,  reaching  the  city  from  the  country,  was  the 
first  announcement  of  the  invasion.  Romulus,  aroused  by 
this — for  a  war  so  near  home  could  not  brook  delay — led  out 
his  army,  and  pitched  his  camp  a  mile  from  Fidense.  Hav- 
ing left  a  small  garrison  there,  he  marched  out  with  all  his 
forces  and  gave  orders  that  a  part  of  them  should  lie  in  am- 
bush in  a  spot  hidden  amid  bushes  planted  thickly  around ;  he 
himself  advancing  with  the  greater  part  of  the  infantry  and  all 
the  cavalry,  by  riding  up  almost  to  the  very  gates,  drew  out 
the  enemy — which  was  just  what  he  wanted — by  a  mode  of 
battle  of  a  disorderly  and  threatening  nature.  The  same  tac- 
tics on  the  part  of  the  cavalry  caused  the  flight,  which  it  was 
necessary  to  pretend,  to  appear  less  surprising :  and  when,  as 
the  cavalry  appeared  undecided  whether  to  make  up  its  mind 
to  fight  or  flee,  the  infantry  also  retreated — the  enemy,  pour- 
ing forth  suddenly  through  the  crowded  gates,  were  drawn  to- 
ward the  place  of  ambuscade,  in  their  eagerness  to  press  on 
and  pursue,  after  they  had  broken  the  Roman  line.  There- 
upon the  Romans,  suddenly  arising,  attacked  the  enemy's  line 
in  flanks ;  the  advance  from  the  camp  of  the  standards  of 
those,  who  had  been  left  behind  on  guard,  increased  the  panic : 
thus  the  Fidenates,  smitten  with  terror  from  many  quarters, 
took  to  flight  almost  before  Romulus  and  the  cavalry  who  ac- 
companied him  could  wheel  round :  and  those  who  a  little  be- 
fore had  been  in  pursuit  of  men  who  pretended  flight,  made 
for  the  town  again  in  much  greater  disorder,  seeing  that  their 
flight  was  real.  They  did  not,  however,  escape  the  foe:  the 
Romans,  pressing  closely  on  their  rear,  rushed  in  as  if  it  were 
in  one  body,  before  the  doors  of  the  gates  could  be  shut  against 
them. 

The  minds  of  the  inhabitants  of  Veii,2  being  exasperated 

1  The  inhabitants  of  Fidenae,  about  five  miles  from  Rome,  situated  on 
the  Tiber,  near  Castel  Giubileo. — D.  O. 

*  About  twelve  and  a  half  miles  north  of  Rome,  close  to  the  little  river 
Cremera  :   it  was  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  twelve  confederate 
Etruscan  towns.     Plutarch  describes  it  as  the  bulwark  of  Etruria  :  not 
inferior  to  Rome  in  military  equipment  and  numbers. 
2 


18  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.716 

by  the  infectious  influence  of  the  Fidenatian  war,  both  from 
the  tie  of  kinship — for  the  Fidenates  also  were  Etruscans — and 
because  the  very  proximity  of  the  scene  of  action,  in  the  event 
of  the  Roman  arms  being  directed  against  all  their  neighbours, 
urged  them  on,  they  sallied  forth  into  the  Roman  territories, 
rather  with  the  object  of  plundering  than  after  the  manner  of 
a  regular  war.  Accordingly,  without  pitching  a  camp,  or 
waiting  for  the  enemy's  army,  they  returned  to  Veii,  taking 
with  them  the  booty  they  had  carried  off  from  the  lands ;  the 
Roman  army,  on  the  other  hand,  when  they  did  not  find  the 
enemy  in  the  country,  being  ready  and  eager  for  a  decisive 
action,  crossed  the  Tiber.  And  when  the  Veientes  heard  that 
they  were  pitching  a  camp,  and  intended  to  advance  to  the 
city,  they  came  out  to  meet  them,  that  they  might  rather  de- 
cide the  matter  in  the  open  field,  than  be  shut  up  and  have  to 
fight  from  their  houses  and  walls.  In  this  engagement  the 
Roman  king  gained  the  victory,  his  power  being  unassisted 
by  any  stratagem,  by  the  unaided  strength  of  his  veteran 
army :  and  having  pursued  the  routed  enemies  up  to  their 
walls,  he  refrained  from  attacking  the  city,  which  was  strongly 
fortified  and  well  defended  by  its  natural  advantages:  on  his 
return  he  laid  waste  their  lands,  rather  from  a  desire  of  re- 
venge than  of  booty.  The  Veientes,  humbled  by  that  loss 
no  less  than  by  the  unsuccessful  issue  of  the  battle,  sent  am- 
bassadors to  Rome  to  sue  for  peace.  A  truce  for  one  hun- 
dred years  was  granted  them,  after  they  had  been  mulcted  in 
a  part  of  their  territory.  These  were  essentially  the  chief 
events  of  the  reign  of  Romulus,  in  peace  and  in  war,  none  of 
which  seemed  inconsistent  with  the  belief  of  his  divine  origin, 
or  of  his  deification  after  death,  neither  the  spirit  he  showed 
in  recovering  his  grandfather's  kingdom,  nor  his  wisdom  in 
building  a  city,  and  afterward  strengthening  it  by  the  arts  of 
war  and  peace.  For  assuredly  it  was  by  the  power  that  Rom- 
ulus gave  it  that  it  became  so  powerful,  that  for  forty  years 
after  it  enjoyed  unbroken  peace.  He  was,  however,  dearer  to 
the  people  than  to  the  fathers :  above  all  others  he  was  most 
beloved  by  the  soldiers  :  of  these  he  kept  three  hundred,  whom 
he  called  Celeres,  armed  to  serve  as  a  body-guard  not  only  in 
time  of  war  but  also  of  peace. 

Having  accomplished  these  works  deserving  of  immortal- 
ity, while  he  was  holding  an  assembly  of  the  people  for  review- 
ing his  army,  in  the  plain  near  the  Goat's  pool,  a  storm  sudden- 
ly came  on,  accompanied  by  loud  thunder  and  lightning,  and 
enveloped  the  king  in  so  dense  a  mist,  that  it  entirely  hid  him 
from  the  sight  of  the  assembly.  After  this  Romulus  was 


B.  C.  716]  DEATH  OF  ROMULUS  ig 

never  seen  again  upon  earth.  The  feeling  of  consternation 
having  at  length  calmed  down,  and  the  weather  having  be- 
come clear  and  fine  again  after  so  stormy  a  day,  the  Roman 
youth,  seeing  the  royal  seat  empty — though  they  readily  be- 
lieved the  words  of  the  fathers  who  had  stood  nearest  him,  that 
he  had  been  carried  up  to  heaven  by  the  storm — yet,  struck  as 
it  were  with  the  fear  of  being  fatherless,  for  a  considerable 
time  preserved  a  sorrowful  silence.  Then,  after  a  few  had  set 
the  example,  the  whole  multitude  saluted  Romulus  as  a  god, 
the  son  of  a  god,  the  king  and  parent  of  the  Roman  city ;  they 
implored  his  favour  with  prayers,  that  with  gracious  kindness 
he  would  always  preserve  his  offspring.  I  believe  that  even 
then  there  were  some,  who  in  secret  were  convinced  that  the 
king  had  been  torn  in  pieces  by  the  hands  of  the  fathers — for 
this  rumour  also  spread,  but  it  was  very  doubtfully  received; 
admiration  for  the  man,  however,  and  the  awe  felt  at  the 
moment,  gave  greater  notoriety  to  the  other  report.  Also  by 
the  clever  idea  of  one  individual,  additional  confirmation  is 
said  to  have  been  attached  to  the  occurrence.  For  Proculus 
Julius,  while  the  state  was  still  troubled  at  the  loss  of  the 
king,  and  incensed  against  the  senators,  a  weighty  authority, 
as  we  are  told,  in  any  matter  however  important,  came  forward 
into  the  assembly.  "  Quirites,"  said  he,  "  Romulus,  the  fa- 
ther of  this  city,  suddenly  descending  from  heaven,  appeared 
to  me  this  day  at  daybreak.  While  I  stood  filled  with  dread, 
and  religious  awe,  beseeching  him  to  allow  me  to  look  upon 
him  face  to  face, '  Go/  said  he,  '  tell  the  Romans,  that  the  gods 
so  will,  that  my  Rome  should  become  the  capital  of  the  world. 
Therefore  let  them  cultivate  the  art  of  war,  and  let  them  know 
and  so  hand  it  down  to  posterity,  that  no  human  power  can 
withstand  the  Roman  arms.'  Having  said  this,  he  vanished 
up  to  heaven."  It  is  surprising  what  credit  was  given  to  that 
person  when  he  made  the  announcement,  and  how  much  the 
regret  of  the  common  people  and  army  for  the  loss  of  Romu- 
lus was  assuaged  when  the  certainty  of  his  immortality  was 
confirmed.1 

Meanwhile 2  contention  for  the  throne  and  ambition  en- 
gaged the  minds  of  the  fathers ;  the  struggle  was  not  as  yet 
carried  on  by  individuals,  by  violence  or  contending  factions, 
because,  among  a  new  people,  no  one  person  was  pre-eminent- 

1  A  naively  circumstantial  story  characteristically  told.  Though  a 
republican,  it  is  quite  evident  that  Livy  wishes  to  convey  the  idea  that 
Romulus,  having  by  the  creation  of  a  body-guard  aspired  to  tyrannical 
power,  was  assassinated  by  the  senate. — D.  O. 

*  The  reading  in  this  section  is  uncertain. 


20  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.716 

ly  distinguished ;  the  contest  was  carried  on  between  the  dif- 
ferent orders.  The  descendants  of  the  Sabines  wished  a  king 
to  be  elected  from  their  own  body,  lest,  because  there  had 
been  no  king  from  their  own  party  since  the  death  of  Tatius, 
they  might  lose  their  claim  to  the  crown  although  both  were 
on  an  equal  footing.  The  old  Romans  spurned  the  idea  of  a 
foreign  prince.  Amid  this  diversity  of  views,  however,  all 
were  anxious  to  be  under  the  government  of  a  king,  as  they 
had  not  yet  experienced  the  delights  of  liberty.  Fear  then 
seized  the  senators,  lest,  as  the  minds  of  many  surrounding 
states  were  incensed  against  them,  some  foreign  power  should 
attack  the  state,  now  without  a  government,  and  the  army, 
now  without  a  leader.  Therefore,  although  they  were  agreed 
that  there  should  be  some  head,  yet  none  could  bring  himself 
to  give  way  to  another.  Accordingly,  the  hundred  senators 
divided  the  government  among  themselves,  ten  decuries  be- 
ing formed,  and  the  individual  members  who  were  to  have 
the  chief  direction  of  affairs  being  chosen  into  each  decury.1 
Ten  governed;  one  only  was  attended  by  the  lictors  and  with 
the  insignia  of  authority :  their  power  was  limited  to  the  space 
of  five  days,  and  conferred  upon  all  in  rotation,  and  the  inter- 
val between  the  government  of  a  king  lasted  a  year.  From 
this  fact  it  was  called  an  interregnum,  a  term  which  is  em- 
ployed even  now.  Then  the  people  began  to  murmur,  that 
their  slavery  was  multiplied,  and  that  they  had  now  a  hundred 
sovereigns  instead  of  one,  and  they  seemed  determined  to  sub- 
mit to  no  authority  but  that  of  a  king,  and  that  one  appointed 
by  themselves.  When  the  fathers  perceived  that  such  schemes 
were  on  foot,  thinking  it  advisable  to  offer  them,  without  be- 
ing asked,  what  they  were  sure  to  lose,  they  conciliated  the 
good- will  of  the  people  by  yielding  to  them  the  supreme 
power,  yet  in  such  a  manner  as  to  surrender  no  greater  privi- 
lege than  they  reserved  to  themselves.  For  they  decreed, 
that  when  the  people  had  chosen  a  king,  the  election  should  be 
valid,  if  the  senate  gave  the  sanction  of  their  authority.  And 
even  to  this  day  the  same  forms  are  observed  in  proposing 
laws  and  magistrates,  though  their  power  has  been  taken 
away;  for  before  the  people  begin  to  vote,  the  senators  ratify 
their  choice,  even  while  the  result  of  the  elections  is  still  un- 
certain. Then  the  interrex,  having  summoned  an  assembly 
of  the  people,  addressed  them  as  follows :  "  Do  you,  Quirites, 

1  Two  interpretations  are  given  of  this  passage — (i)  that  out  of  each 
decury  one  senator  was  chosen  by  lot  to  make  up  the  governing  body  of 
ten  ;  (2)  that  each  decury  as  a  whole  held  office  in  succession,  so  that  one 
decury  was  in  power  for  fifty  days. 


B.  C.  716]  NUMA   POMPILIUS,    KING  21 

choose  yourselves  a  king,  and  may  this  choice  prove  fortunate, 
happy,  and  auspicious ;  such  is  the  will  of  the  fathers.  Then, 
if  you  shall  choose  a  prince  worthy  to  be  reckoned  next  after 
Romulus,  the  fathers  will  ratify  your  choice."  This  conces- 
sion was  so  pleasing  to  the  people,  that,  not  to  appear  outdone 
in  generosity,  they  only  voted  and  ordained  that  the  senate 
should  determine  who  should  be  king  at  Rome. 

The  justice  and  piety  of  Numa  Pompilius  was  at  that  time 
celebrated.  He  dwelt  at  Cures,  a  city  of  the  Sabines,  and 
was  as  eminently  learned  in  all  law,  human  and  divine,  as  any 
man  could  be  in  that  age.  They  falsely  represent  that  Py- 
thagoras of  Samos  was  his  instructor  in  learning,  because 
there  appears  no  other.  Now  it  is  certain  that  this  philoso- 
pher, in  the  reign  of  Servius  Tullius,  more  than  a  hundred 
years  after  this,  held  assemblies  of  young  men,  who  eagerly 
embraced  his  doctrines,  on  the  most  distant  shore  of  Italy, 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Metapontum,  Heraclea,  and  Croton. 
But  from  these  places,  even  had  he  flourished  in  the  same  age, 
what  fame  of  his  could  have  reached  the  Sabines?  or  by  what 
intercourse  of  language  could  it  have  aroused  any  one  to  a 
desire  of  learning?  or  by  what  safeguard  could  a  single  man 
have  passed  through  the  midst  of  so  many  nations  differing 
in  language  and  customs?  I  am  therefore  rather  inclined 
to  believe  that  his  mind,  owing  to  his  natural  bent,  was  at- 
tempered by  virtuous  qualities,  and  that  he  was  not  so  much 
versed  in  foreign  systems  of  philosophy  as  in  the  stern  and 
gloomy  training  of  the  ancient  Sabines,  a  race  than  which 
none  was  in  former  times  more  strict.  When  they  heard  the 
name  of  Numa,  although  the  Roman  fathers  perceived  that 
the  balance  of  power  would  incline  to  the  Sabines  if  a  king 
were  chosen  from  them,  yet  none  of  them  ventured  to  prefer 
himself,  or  any  other  member  of  his  party,  or,  in  fine,  any  of  the 
citizens  or  fathers,  to  a  man  so  well  known,  but  unanimously 
resolved  that  the  kingdom  should  be  offered  to  Numa  Pom- 
pilius. Being  sent  for,  just  as  Romulus  obtained  the  throne 
by  the  augury  in  accordance  with  which  he  founded  the  city, 
so  Numa  in  like  manner  commanded  the  gods  to  be  consulted 
concerning  himself.  Upon  this,  being  escorted  into  the  cita- 
del by  an  augur,  to  whose  profession  that  office  was  later 
made  a  public  and  perpetual  one  by  way  of  honour,  he  sat 
down  on  a  stone  facing  the  south:  the  augur  took  his  seat 
on  his  left  hand  with  his  head  covered,  holding  in  his  right 
a  crooked  wand  free  from  knots,  called  lituus;  then,  after  hav- 
ing taken  a  view  over  the  city  and  country,  and  offered  a 
prayer  to  the  gods,  he  defined  the  bounds  of  the  regions  of 


22  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  716 

the  sky  from  east  to  west:  the  parts  toward  the  south  he 
called  the  right,  those  toward  the  north,  the  left;  and  in  front 
of  him  he  marked  out  in  his  mind  the  sign  as  far  as  ever  his 
eyes  could  see.  Then  having  shifted  the  lituus  into  his  left 
hand,  and  placed  his  right  on  the  head  of  Numa,  he  prayed 
after  this  manner:  "O  father  Jupiter,  if  it  be  thy  will  that 
this  Numa  Pompilius,  whose  head  I  hold,  be  king  of  Rome, 
mayest  thou  manifest  infallible  signs  to  us  within  those  bounds 
which  I  have  marked."  Then  he  stated  in  set  terms  the  aus- 
pices which  he  wished  to  be  sent:  on  their  being  sent,  Numa 
was  declared  king  and  came  down  from  the  seat  of  augury. 

Having  thus  obtained  the  kingdom,  he  set  about  estab- 
lishing anew,  on  the  principles  of  law  and  morality,  the  newly 
founded  city  that  had  been  already  established  by  force  of 
arms.  When  he  saw  that  the  inhabitants,  inasmuch  'as  men's 
minds  are  brutalized  by  military  life,  could  not  become  recon- 
ciled to  such  principles  during  the  continuance  of  wars,  con- 
sidering that  the  savage  nature  of  the  people  must  be  toned 
down  by  the  disuse  of  arms,  he  erected  at  the  foot  of  Argile- 
tum  x  a  temple  of  Janus,  as  a  sign  of  peace  and  war,  that  when 
open,  it  might  show  that  the  state  was  engaged  in  war,  and 
when  shut,  that  all  the  surrounding  nations  were  at  peace. 
Twice  only  since  the  reign  of  Numa  has  this  temple  been 
shut:  once  when  Titus  Manlius  was  consul,  after  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  first  Punic  war;  and  a  second  time,  which  the  gods 
granted  our  generation  to  behold,  by  the  Emperor  Caesar 
Augustus,  after  the  battle  of  Actium,  when  peace  was  estab- 
lished by  land  and  sea.  This  being  shut,  after  he  had  secured 
the  friendship  of  all  the  neighbouring  states  around  by  alliance 
and  treaties,  all  anxiety  regarding  dangers  from  abroad  being 
now  removed,  in  order  to  prevent  their  minds,  which  the  fear 
of  enemies  and  military  discipline  had  kept  in  check,  running 
riot  from  too  much  leisure,  he  considered,  that,  first  of  all, 
awe  of  the  gods  should  be  instilled  into  them,  a  principle  of 
the  greatest  efficacy  in  dealing  with  the  multitude,  ignorant 
and  uncivilized  as  it  was  in  those  times.  But  as  this  fear  could 
not  sink  deeply  into  their  minds  without  some  fiction  of  a 
miracle,  he  pretended  that  he  held  nightly  interviews  with  the 
goddess  Egeria;  that  by  her  direction  he  instituted  sacred 
rites  such  as  would  be  most  acceptable  to  the  gods,  and  ap- 
pointed their  own  priests  for  each  of  the  deities.  And,  first 

1  At  this  time  a  grove  :  later  it  became  one  of  the  artificers'  quarters, 
lying  beyond  the  forum  and  in  the  jaws  of  the  suburra,  which  stretched 
away  over  the  level  ground  to  the  foot  of  the  Esquiline  and  Quirinal 
Hills.— D.  O. 


B.C.  715-672]  THE   WORKS  OF  NUMA  23 

of  all,  he  divided  the  year  into  twelve  months,  according  to 
the  courses  of  the  moon ; *  and  because  the  moon  does  not 
fill  up  the  number  of  thirty  days  in  each  month,  and  some 
days  are  wanting  to  the  complete  year,  which  is  brought  round 
by  the  solstitial  revolution,  he  so  regulated  this  year,  by  in- 
serting intercalary  months,  that  every  twentieth  year,  the 
lengths  of  all  the  intermediate  years  being  filled  up,  the  days 
corresponded  with  the  same  starting-point  of  the  sun  whence 
they  had  set  out.  He  likewise  divided  days  into  sacred  and 
profane,  because  on  certain  occasions  it  was  likely  to  be  ex- 
pedient that  no  business  should  be  transacted  with  the  people. 
Next  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  appointment  of  priests, 
though  he  discharged  many  sacred  functions  himself,  espe- 
cially those  which  now  belong  to  the  flamen  of  Jupiter.  But, 
as  he  imagined  that  in  a  warlike  nation  there  would  be  more 
kings  resembling  Romulus  than  Numa,  and  that  they  would 
go  to  war  in  person,  in  order  that  the  sacred  functions  of  the 
royal  office  might  not  be  neglected,  he  appointed  a  perpetual 
priest  as  flamen  to  Jupiter,  and  distinguished  him  by  a  fine 
robe,  and  a  royal  curule  chair.  To  him  he  added  two  other 
flamens,  one  for  Mars,  another  for  Quirinus.  He  also  chose 
virgins  for  Vesta,  a  priesthood  derived  from  Alba,  and  not 
foreign  to  the  family  of  the  founder.  That  they  might  be 
constant  attendants  in  the  temple,  he  appointed  them  pay 

1  Romulus  had  made  his  year  to  consist  of  ten  months,  the  first  month 
being  March,  and  the  number  of  days  in  the  year  only  304,  which  cor- 
responded neither  with  the  course  of  the  sun  nor  moon.  Numa,  who 
added  the  two  months  of  January  and  February,  divided  the  year  into 
twelve  months,  according  to  the  course  of  the  moon.  This  was  the 
lunar  Greek  year,  and  consisted  of  354  days.  Numa,  however,  adopted 
355  days  for  his  year,  from  his  partiality  to  odd  numbers.  The  lunar  year 
of  354  days  fell  short  of  the  solar  year  by  nj  days;  this  in  8  years 
amounted  to  (ii£  x  8)  90  days.  These  90  days  he  divided  into  2  months 
of  22,  and  2  of  23  days  [(2  x  22)  +  (2  x  23)  =  90],  and  introduced  them  alter- 
nately every  second  year  for  two  octennial  periods  :  every  third  octennial 
period,  however,  Numa  intercalated  only  66  days  instead  of  90  days — 
i.  e.,  he  inserted  3  months  of  only  22  days  each.  The  reason  was,  be- 
cause he  adopted  355  days  as  the  length  of  his  lunar  year  instead  of 
354,  and  this  in  24  years  (3  octennial  periods)  produced  an  error  of  24 
days  ;  this  error  was  exactly  compensated  by  intercalating  only  66  days 
(90  —  24)  in  the  third  octennial  period.  The  intercalations  were  generally 
made  in  the  month  of  February,  after  the  23d  of  the  month.  The  man- 
agement was  left  to  the  pontiffs — ad  metam  eandem  solis  unde  orsi  essent 
— dies  congruerent ;  "  that  the  days  might  correspond  to  the  same  starting- 
point  of  the  sun  in  the  heavens  whence  they  had  set  out."  That  is,  tak- 
ing for  instance  the  Tropic  of  Cancer  for  the  place  or  starting-point  of  the 
sun  any  one  year,  and  observing  that  he  was  in  that  point  of  the  heavens 
on  precisely  the  2ist  of  June,  the  object  was  so  to  dispense  the  year,  that 
the  day  on  which  the  sun  was  observed  to  arrive  at  that  same  meta  or 
starting-point  again,  should  also  be  called  the  2ist  of  June. 


24  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.715-672 

out  of  the  public  treasury;  and  by  enjoining  virginity,  and 
various  religious  observances,  he  made  them  sacred  and  ven- 
erable. He  also  chose  twelve  Salii  for  Mars  Gradivus,  and 
gave  them  the  distinction  of  an  embroidered  tunic,  and  over 
the  tunic  a  brazen  covering  for  the  breast.  He  commanded 
them  to  carry  the  shields  called  Ancilia,1  which  fell  from 
heaven,  and  to  go  through  the  city  singing  songs,  with  leap- 
ing and  solemn  dancing.  Then  he  chose  from  the  fathers 
Numa  Marcius,  son  of  Marcius,  as  pontiff,  and  consigned  to 
him  a  complete  system  of  religious  rites  written  out  and  re- 
corded, showing  with  what  victims,  upon  what  days,  and  at 
what  temples  the  sacred  rites  were  to  be  performed,  and  from 
what  funds  the  money  was  to  be  taken  to  defray  the  expenses. 
He  also  placed  all  other  religious  institutions,  public  and  pri- 
vate, under  the  control  of  the  decrees  of  the  pontiff,  to  the 
end  that  there  might  be  some  authority  to  whom  the  people 
should  come  to  ask  advice,  to  prevent  any  confusion  in  the 
divine  worship  being  caused  by  their  neglecting  the  cere- 
monies of  their  own  country,  and  adopting  foreign  ones.  He 
further  ordained  that  the  same  pontiff  should  instruct  the 
people  not  only  in  the  ceremonies  connected  with  the  heav- 
enly deities,  but  also  in  the  due  performance  of  funeral  so- 
lemnities, and  how  to  appease  the  shades  of  the  dead;  and 
what  prodigies  sent  by  lightning  or  any  other  phenomenon 
were  to  be  attended  to  and  expiated.  To  draw  forth  such 
knowledge  from  the  minds  of  the  gods,  he  dedicated  an  altar 
on  the  Aventine  to  Jupiter  Elicius,  and  consulted  the  god  by 
means  of  auguries  as  to  what  prodigies  ought  to  be  at- 
tended to. 

The  attention  of  the  whole  people  having  been  thus  di- 
verted from  violence  and  arms  to  the  deliberation  and  adjust- 
ment of  these  matters,  both  their  minds  were  engaged  in  some 
occupation,  and  the  watchfulness  of  the  gods  now  constantly 
impressed  upon  them,  as  the  deity  of  heaven  seemed  to  inter- 
est itself  in  human  concerns,  had  filled  the  breasts  of  all  with 
such  piety,  that  faith  and  religious  obligations  governed  the 
state,  the  dread  of  laws  and  punishments  being  regarded  as 
secondary.  And  while  the  people  of  their  own  accord  were 
forming  themselves  on  the  model  of  the  king,  as  the  most 
excellent  example,  the  neighbouring  states  also,  who  had 
formerly  thought  that  it  was  a  camp,  not  a  city,  that  had  been 
established  in  their  midst  to  disturb  the  general  peace,  were 

1  A  more  general  form  of  the  legend  ran  to  the  effect  that  but  one  of 
these  shields  fell  from  heaven,  and  that  the  others  were  made  like  it,  to 
lessen  the  chance  of  the  genuine  one  being  stolen. — D.  O. 


B.  c.  672-640]  DEATH   OF   NUMA  25 

brought  to  feel  such  respect  for  them  that  they  considered  it 
impious  to  molest  a  state,  wholly  occupied  in  the  worship  of 
the  gods.  There  was  a  grove,  the  middle  of  which  was  irri- 
gated by  a  spring  of  running  water,  flowing  from  a  dark 
grotto.  As  Numa  often  repaired  thither  unattended,  under 
pretence  of  meeting  the  goddess,  he  dedicated  the  grove  to 
the  Camenae,  because,  as  he  asserted,  their  meetings  with  his 
wife  Egeria  were  held  there.  He  also  instituted  a  yearly  festi- 
val to  Faith  alone,  and  commanded  her  priests  to  be  driven 
to  the  chapel  erected  for  the  purpose  in  an  arched  chariot 
drawn  by  two  horses,  and  to  perform  the  divine  service  with 
their  hands  wrapped  up  to  the  fingers,  intimating  that  Faith 
ought  to  be  protected,  and  that  even  her  seat  in  men's  right 
hands  was  sacred.  He  instituted  many  other  sacred  rites, 
and  dedicated  places  for  performing  them,  which  the  priests 
call  Argei.  But  the  greatest  of  all  his  works  was  the  main- 
tenance of  peace  during  the  whole  period  of  his  reign,  no  less 
than  of  his  royal  power.  Thus  two  kings  in  succession,  by 
different  methods,  the  one  by  war,  the  other  by  peace,  ag- 
grandized the  state.  Romulus  reigned  thirty-seven  years, 
Numa  forty-three:  the  state  was  both  strong  and  attempered 
by  the  arts  both  of  war  and  peace. 

Upon  the  death  of  Numa,  the  administration  returned 
again  to  an  interregnum.  After  that  the  people  appointed 
as  king  Tullus  Hostilius,  the  grandson  of  that  Hostilius  who 
had  made  the  noble  stand  against  the  Sabines  at  the  foot  of 
the  citadel:  the  fathers  confirmed  the  choice.  He  was  not 
only  unlike  the  preceding  king,  but  even  of  a  more  warlike 
disposition  than  Romulus.  Both  his  youth  and  strength,  and, 
further,  the  renown  of  his  grandfather,  stimulated  his  ambi- 
tion. Thinking  therefore  that  the  state  was  deteriorating 
through  ease,  he  everywhere  sought  for  an  opportunity  of 
stirring  up  war.  It  so  happened  that  some  Roman  and  Alban 
peasants  mutually  plundered  each  other's  lands.  Gaius  Clu- 
ilius  at  that  time  was  in  power  at  Alba.  From  both  sides  am- 
bassadors were  sent  almost  at  the  same  time,  to  demand  satis- 
faction. Tullus  had  ordered  his  representatives  to  attend  to 
their  instructions  before  anything  else.  He  knew  well  that 
the  Alban  would  refuse,  and  so  war  might  be  proclaimed  with 
a  clear  conscience.  Their  commission  was  executed  in  a  more 
dilatory  manner  by  the  Albans:  being  courteously  and  kindly 
entertained  by  Tullus,  they  gladly  took  advantage  of  the  king's 
hospitality.  Meanwhile  the  Romans  had  both  been  first  in 
demanding  satisfaction,  and  upon  the  refusal  of  the  Alban, 
had  proclaimed  war  upon  the  expiration  of  thirty  days:  of  this 


26  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  672-640 

they  gave  Tullus  notice.  Thereupon  he  granted  the  Alban 
ambassadors  an  opportunity  of  stating  with  what  demands 
they  came.  They,  ignorant  of  everything,  at  first  wasted 
some  time  in  making  excuses :  That  it  was  with  reluctance 
they  would  say  anything  which  might  be  displeasing  to  Tul- 
lus, but  they  were  compelled  by  orders:  that  they  had  come 
to  demand  satisfaction:  if  .this  was  not  granted,  they  were 
commanded  to  declare  war.  To  this  Tullus  made  answer, 
"  Go  tell  your  king,  that  the  king  of  the  Romans  takes  the 
gods  to  witness,  that,  whichever  of  the  two  nations  shall  have 
first  dismissed  with  contempt  the  ambassadors  demanding 
satisfaction,  from  it  they  [the  gods]  may  exact  atonement  for 
the  disasters  of  this  war."  This  message  the  Albans  carried 
home. 

Preparations  were  made  on  both  sides  with  the  utmost 
vigour  for  a  war  very  like  a  civil  one,  in  a  manner  be- 
tween parents  and  children,  both  being  of  Trojan  stock:  fof 
from  Troy  came  Lavinium,  from  Lavinium,  Alba,  and  the 
Romans  were  descended  from  the  stock  of  the  Alban  kings. 
However,  the  result  of  the  war  rendered  the  quarrel  less  dis- 
tressing, for  the  struggle  never  came  to  regular  action,  and 
when  the  buildings  only  of  one  of  the  cities  had  been  demol- 
ished, the  two  states  were  incorporated  into  one.  The  Albans 
first  invaded  the  Roman  territories  with  a  large  army.  They 
pitched  their  camp  not  more  than  five  miles  from  the  city,  and 
surrounded  it  with  a  trench,  which,  for  several  ages,  was  called 
the  Cluilian  trench,  from  the  name  of  the  general,  till,  by  lapse 
of  time,  the  name,  as  well  as  the  event  itself,  was  forgotten. 
In  that  camp  Cluilius,  the  Alban  king,  died:  the  Albans  cre- 
ated Mettius  Fufetius  dictator.  In  the  meantime  Tullus,  ex- 
ultant, especially  at  the  death  of  the  king,  and  giving  out  that 
the  supreme  power  of  the  gods,  having  begun  at  the  head, 
would  take  vengeance  on  the  whole  Alban  nation  for  this  im- 
pious war,  having  passed  the  enemy's  camp  in  the  night-time, 
marched  with  a  hostile  army  into  the  Alban  territory.  This 
circumstance  drew  out  Mettius  from  his  camp:  he  led  his 
forces  as  close  as  possible  to  the  enemy ;  thence  he  despatched 
a  herald  and  commanded  him  to  tell  Tullus  that  a  conference 
was  expedient  before  they  came  to  an  engagement;  and  that, 
if  he  would  give  him  a  meeting,  he  was  certain  he  would  bring 
forward  matters  which  concerned  the  interests  of  Rome  no 
less  than  of  Alba.  Tullus  did  not  reject  the  offer:  neverthe- 
less, in  case  the  proposals  made  should  prove  fruitless,  he  led 
out  his  men  in  order  of  battle:  the  Albans  on  their  side 
marched  out  also.  After  both  armies  stood  drawn  up  in  battle 


B.  €.672-640]  WAR   WITH   ALBA  27 

array,  the  chiefs,  with  a  few  of  the  principal  officers,  advanced 
into  the  midst.  Then  the  Alban  began  as  follows:  "That  in- 
juries and  the  non-restitution  of  property  claimed  according 
to  treaty  is  the  cause  of  this  war,  methinks  I  have  both  heard 
our  king  Cluilius  assert,  and  I  doubt  not,  Tullus,  but  that 
you  allege  the  same.  But  if  the  truth  must  be  told,  rather  than 
what  is  plausible,  it  is  thirst  for  rule  that  provokes  two  kindred 
and  neighbouring  states  to  arms.  Whether  rightly  or  wrong- 
ly, I  do  not  take  upon  myself  to  determine:  let  the  considera- 
tion of  that  rest  with  him  who  has  begun  the  war.  As 
for  myself,  the  Albans  have  only  made  me  their  leader  for 
carrying  on  that  war.  Of  this,  Tullus,  I  would  have  you  ad- 
vised: how  powerful  the  Etruscan  state  is  around  us,  and 
around  you  particularly,  you  know  better  than  we,  inasmuch 
as  you  are  nearer  to  them.  They  are  very  powerful  by  land, 
far  more  so  by  sea.  Recollect  that,  directly  you  shall  give 
the  signal  for  battle,  these  two  armies  will  be  the  object  of 
their  attention,  that  they  may  fall  on  us  when  wearied  and  ex- 
hausted, victor  and  vanquished  together.  Therefore,  for  the 
love  of  heaven,  since,  not  content  with  a  sure  independence, 
we  are  running  the  doubtful  hazard  of  sovereignty  and  slavery, 
let  us  adopt  some  method,  whereby,  without  great  loss,  with- 
out much  bloodshed  of  either  nation,  it  may  be  decided  which 
is  to  rule  the  other."  The  proposal  was  not  displeasing  to 
Tullus,  though  both  from  his  natural  bent,  as  also  from  the 
hope  of  victory,  he  was  rather  inclined  to  violence.  After 
consideration,  on  both  sides,  a  plan  was  adopted,  for  which 
Fortune  herself  afforded  the  means  of  execution. 

It  happened  that  there  were  in  the  two  armies  at  that 
time  three  brothers  born  at  one  birth,  neither  in  age  nor 
strength  ill-matched.  That  they  were  called  Horatii  and  Curi- 
atii  is  certain  enough,  and  there  is  hardly  any  fact  of  antiquity 
more  generally  known;  yet  in  a  manner  so  well  ascertained, 
a  doubt  remains  concerning  their  names,  as  to  which  nation 
the  Horatii,  to  which  the  Curiatii  belonged.  Authors  incline 
to  both  sides,  yet  I  find  a  majority  who  call  the  Horatii 
Romans:  my  own  inclination  leads  me  to  follow  them.  The 
kings  arranged  with  the  three  brothers,  that  they  should 
fight  with  swords,  each  in  defence  of  their  respective  country; 
assuring  them  that  dominion  would  rest  with  those  on  whose 
side  victory  should  declare  itself.  No  objection  was  raised; 
the  time  and  place  were  agreed  upon.  Before  the  engage- 
ment began,  a  compact  was  entered  into  between  the  Romans 
and  Albans  on  these  conditions,  that  that  state,  whose  cham- 
pions should  come  off  victorious  in  the  combat,  should  rule 


2g  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.672-640 

the  other  state  without  further  dispute.  Different  treaties  are 
made  on  different  conditions,  but  in  general  they  are  all  con- 
cluded with  the  same  formalities.  We  have  heard  that  the 
treaty  in  question  was  then  concluded  as  follows,  nor  is  there 
extant  a  more  ancient  record  of  any  treaty.  The  herald  asked 
King  Tullus,  "  Dost  thou  command  me,  O  king,  to  conclude 
a  treaty  with  the  pater  patratus  of  the  Alban  people?"  On 
the  king  so  commanding  him  he  said,  "  I  demand  vervain  of 
thee,  O  king."  The  king  replied,  "  Take  some  that  is  pure." 
The  herald  brought  a  pure  blade  of  grass  from  the  citadel; 
then  again  he  asked  the  king,  "  Dost  thou,  O  king,  appoint 
me  the  royal  delegate  of  the  Roman  people,  the  Quirites,  and 
my  appurtenances  and  attendants?"  The  king  replied,  "So 
far  as  it  may  be  done  without  detriment  to  me  and  to  the 
Roman  people,  the  Quirites,  I  do  so."  The  herald  was  Mar- 
cus Valerius,  who  appointed  Spurius  Fusius  pater  patratus,1 
touching  his  head  and  hair  with  the  vervain.2  The  pater 
patratus  was  appointed  ad  iusiurandum  patrandum,  that  is, 
to  ratify  the  treaty;  and  he  went  through  it  in  a  lengthy  pre- 
amble, which,  being  expressed  in  a  long  set  form,  it  is  not 
worth  while  to  repeat.  After  having  set  forth  the  conditions, 
he  said:  "  Hear,  O  Jupiter;  hear,  O  pater  patratus  of  the 
Alban  people,  and  ye,  O  Alban  people,  give  ear.  As  those 
conditions,  from  first  to  last,  have  been  publicly  recited  from 
those  tablets  or  wax  without  wicked  or  fraudulent  intent,  and 
as  they  have  been  most  correctly  understood  here  this  day, 
the  Roman  people  will  not  be  the  first  to  fail  to  observe  those 
conditions.  If  they  shall  be  the  first  to  do  so  by  public  con- 
sent, by  fraudulent  intent,  on  that  day  do  thou,  O  Jupiter, 
so  strike  the  Roman  people,  as  I  shall  here  this  day  strike 
this  swine;  and  do  thou  strike  them  so  much  the  more,  as 
thou  art  more  mighty  and  more  powerful."  When  he  said 
this,  he  struck  the  swine  with  a  flint  stone.  The  Albans  like- 
wise went  through  their  own  set  form  and  oath  by  the  mouth 
of  their  own  dictator  and  priests. 

The  treaty  being  concluded,  the  twin-brothers,  as  had  been 
agreed,  took  arms.  While  their  respective  friends  exhorted 
each  party,  reminding  them  that  their  country's  gods,  their 
country  and  parents,  all  their  fellow-citizens  both  at  home 
and  in  the  army,  had  their  eyes  then  fixed  on  their  arms,  on 
their  hands,  being  both  naturally  brave,  and  animated  by 

1  The  chief  of  the  fetiales. 

*  This  vervain  was  used  for  religious  purposes,  and  plucked  up  by  the 
roots  from  consecrated  ground  ;  it  was  carried  by  ambassadors  to  protect 
them  from  violence. 


B.  €.672-640]       THE   HORATII   AND   CURIATII  29 

the  shouts  and  exhortations  of  their  friends,  they  advanced 
into  the  midst  between  the  two  lines.  The  two  armies  on 
both  sides  had  taken  their  seats  in  front  of  their  respective 
camps,  free  rather  from  danger  for  the  moment  than  from 
anxiety:  for  sovereign  power  was  at  stake,  dependent  on  the 
valour  and  fortune  of  so  few.  Accordingly,  therefore,  on  the 
tip-toe  of  expectation,  their  attention  was  eagerly  fixed  on  a 
spectacle  far  from  pleasing.  The  signal  was  given:  and  the 
three  youths  on  each  side,  as  if  in  battle  array,  rushed  to  the 
charge  with  arms  presented,  bearing  in  their  breasts  the  spirit 
of  mighty  armies.  Neither  the  one  nor  the  other  heeded  their 
personal  danger,  but  the  public  dominion  or  slavery  was  pres- 
ent to  their  mind,  and  the  thought  that  the  fortune  of  their 
country  would  be  such  hereafter  as  they  themselves  should 
have  made  it.  Directly  their  arms  clashed  at  the  first  en- 
counter, and  their  glittering  swords  flashed,  a  mighty  horror 
thrilled  the  spectators;  and,  as  hope  inclined  to  neither  side, 
voice  and  breath  alike  were  numbed.  Then  having  engaged 
hand  to  hand,  when  now  not  only  the  movements  of  their 
bodies,  and  the  indecisive  brandishings  of  their  arms  and 
weapons,  but  wounds  also  and  blood  were  seen,  two  of  the 
Romans  fell  lifeless,  one  upon  the  other,  the  three  Albans 
being  wounded.  And  when  the  Alban  army  had  raised  a 
shout  of  joy  at  their  fall,  hope  had  entirely  by  this  time,  not 
however  anxiety,  deserted  the  Roman  legions,  breathless  with 
apprehension  at  the  dangerous  position  of  this  one  man, 
whom  the  three  Curiatii  had  surrounded.  He  happened  to 
be  unhurt,  so  that,  though  alone  he  was  by  no  means  a  match 
for  them  all  together,  yet  he  was  full  of  confidence  against 
each  singly.  In  order  therefore  to  separate  their  attack,  he 
took  to  flight,  presuming  that  they  would  each  pursue  him 
with  such  swiftness  as  the  wounded  state  of  his  body  would 
permit.  He  had  now  fled  a  considerable  distance  from  the 
place  where  the  fight  had  taken  place,  when,  looking  back, 
he  perceived  that  they  were  pursuing  him  at  a  great  distance 
from  each  other,  and  that  one  of  them  was  not  far  from  him. 
On  him  he  turned  round  with  great  fury,  and  while  the  Alban 
army  shouted  out  to  the  Curiatii  to  succour  their  brother,  Ho- 
ratius  by  this  time  victorious,  having  slain  his  antagonist,  was 
now  proceeding  to  a  second  attack.  Then  the  Romans  en- 
couraged their  champion  with  a  shout  such  as  is  wont  to  be 
raised  when  men  cheer  in  consequence  of  unexpected  suc- 
cess ;  and  he  hastened  to  finish  the  combat.  Wherefore  before 
the  other,  who  was  not  far  off,  could  come  up  to  him,  he  slew 
the  second  Curiatius  also.  And  now,  the  combat  being 


30  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  672-640 

brought  to  equal  terms,  one  on  each  side  remained,  but  un- 
equally matched  in  hope  and  strength.  The  one  was  inspired 
with  courage  for  a  third  contest  by  the  fact  that  his  body 
was  uninjured  by  a  weapon,  and  by  his  double  victory:  the 
other  dragging  along  his  body  exhausted  from  his  wound, 
exhausted  from  running,  and  dispirited  by  the  slaughter  of 
his  brothers  before  his  eyes,  thus  met  his  victorious  antago- 
nist. And  indeed  there  was  no  fight.  The  Roman,  exulting, 
cried :  "  Two  I  have  offered  to  the  shades  of  my  brothers :  the 
third  I  will  offer  to  the  cause  of  this  war,  that  the  Roman  may 
rule  over  the  Alban."  He  thrust  his  sword  down  from  above 
into  his  throat,  while  he  with  difficulty  supported  the  weight 
of  his  arms,  and  stripped  him  as  he  lay  prostrate.  The  Romans 
welcomed  Horatius  with  joy  and  congratulations;  with  so 
much  the  greater  exultation,  as  the  matter  had  closely  bor- 
dered on  alarm.  They  then  turned  their  attention  to  the  burial 
of  their  friends,  with  feelings  by  no  means  the  same:  for  the 
one  side  was  elated  by  the  acquisition  of  empire,  the  other 
brought  under  the  rule  of  others:  their  sepulchres  may  still 
be  seen  in  the  spot  where  each  fell ;  the  two  Roman  in  one 
place  nearer  Alba,  the  three  Alban  in  the  direction  of  Rome, 
but  situated  at  some  distance  from  each  other,  as  in  fact  they 
had  fought. 

Before  they  departed  from  thence,  when  Mettius,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  treaty  which  had  been  concluded,  asked 
Tullus  what  his  orders  were,  he  ordered  him  to  keep  his  young 
men  under  arms,  for  he  intended  to  employ  them,  if  a  war 
should  break  out  with  the  Veientes.  After  this  both  armies 
were  led  away  to  their  homes.  Horatius  marched  in  front, 
carrying  before  him  the  spoils  of  the  three  brothers:  his 
maiden  sister,  who  had  been  betrothed  to  one  of  the  Curiatii, 
met  him  before  the  gate  Capena ; x  and  having  recognised  on 
her  brother's  shoulders  the  military  robe  of  her  betrothed, 
which  she  herself  had  worked,  she  tore  her  hair,  and  with 
bitter  wailings  called  by  name  on  her  deceased  lover.  The 
sister's  lamentations  in  the  midst  of  his  own  victory,  and  of 
such  great  public  rejoicings,  raised  the  ire  of  the  hot-tempered 
youth.  So,  having  drawn  his  sword,  he  ran  the  maiden 
through  the  body,  at  the  same  time  reproaching  her  with  these 
words:  "  Go  hence  with  thy  ill-timed  love  to  thy  spouse,  for- 
getful of  thy  brothers  that  are  dead,  and  of  the  one  who  sur- 
vives— forgetful  of  thy  country.  So  fare  every  Roman  woman 
who  shall  mourn  an  enemy."  This  deed  seemed  cruel  to  the 

1  This  gate  became  later  the  starting-point  of  the  Appian  Way. — D.  O. 


B.C.  672-640]  TRIAL  OF  HORATIUS  31 

fathers  and  to  the  people;  but  his  recent  services  outweighed 
its  enormity.  Nevertheless  he  was  dragged  before  the  king 
for  judgment.  The  king,  however,  that  he  might  not  him- 
self be  responsible  for  a  decision  so  melancholy,  and  so  dis- 
agreeable in  the  view  of  the  people,  or  for  the  punishment  con- 
sequent on  such  decision,  having  summoned  an  assembly  of 
the  people,  declared,  "  I  appoint,  according  to  law,  duumvirs 
to  pass  sentence  on  Horatius  for  treason."  The  law  was  of 
dreadful  formula.  "  Let  the  duumvirs  pass  sentence  for  trea- 
son. If  he  appeal  from  the  duumvirs,  let  him  contend  by 
appeal;  if  they  shall  gain  the  cause,  let  the  lictor  cover  his 
head,  hang  him  by  a  rope  on  the  accursed  tree,  scourge  him 
either  within  the  pomerium,1  or  without  the  pomerium."  The 
duumvirs  appointed  in  accordance  with  this  decision,  who  did 
not  consider  that,  according  to  that  law,  they  could  acquit 
the  man  even  if  innocent,  having  condemned  him,  then  one 
of  them  said:  "  Publius  Horatius,  I  judge  thee  guilty  of  trea- 
son. Lictor,  bind  his  hands."  The  lictor  had  approached 
him,  and  was  commencing  to  fix  the  rope  round  his  neck. 
Then  Horatius,  on  the  advice  of  Tullus,  a  merciful  interpreter 
of  the  law,  said,  "  I  appeal."  Accordingly  the  matter  was 
contested  before  the  people  as  to  the  appeal.  At  that  trial 
the  spectators  were  much  affected,  especially  on  Publius 
Horatius  the  father  declaring  that  he  considered  his  daughter 
to  have  been  deservedly  slain;  were  it  not  so,  that  he  would 
by  virtue  of  his  authority  as  a  father  have  inflicted  punish- 
ment on  his  son.  He  then  entreated  them,  that  they  would 
not  render  him  childless,  one  whom  but  a  little  while  ago  they 
had  beheld  blessed  with  a  fine  progeny.  During  these  words 
the  old  man,  having  embraced  the  youth,  pointing  to  the 
spoils  of  the  Curiatii  hung  up  in  that  place  which  is  now 
called  Pila  Horatia,2  "  Quirites,"  said  he,  "  can  you  bear  to  see 
bound  beneath  the  gallows,  amid  scourgings  and  tortures, 
the  man  whom  you  just  now  beheld  marching  decorated  with 
spoils  and  exulting  in  victory — a  sight  so  shocking  that  even 
the  eyes  of  the  Albans  could  scarcely  endure  it?  Go  then, 
lictor,  bind  those  hands,  which  but  a  little  while  since,  armed, 
won  sovereignty  for  the  Roman  people.  Go,  cover  the  head 
of  the  liberator  of  this  city:  hang  him  on  the  accursed  tree: 
scourge  him,  either  within  the  pomerium,  so  it  be  only  amid 

1  An  imaginary  sacred  line  that  marked  the  bounds  of  the  city.  It  did 
not  always  coincide  with  the  line  of  the  walls,  but  was  extended  from 
time  to  time.  Such  extension  could  only  be  made  by  a  magistrate  who 
had  extended  the  boundaries  of  the  empire  by  his  victories. — D.  O. 

*  Literally,  "  Horatian  javelins." — D.  O. 


32  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  672-640 

those  javelins  and  spoils  of  the  enemy,  or  without  the  pomeri- 
um,  so  it  be  only  amid  the  graves  of  the  Curiatii.  For  whither 
can  you  lead  this  youth,  where  his  own  noble  deeds  will  not 
redeem  him  from  such  disgraceful  punishment?  "  The  people 
could  not  withstand  either  the  tears  of  the  father,  or  the  spirit 
of  the  son,  the  same  in  every  danger,  and  acquitted  him  more 
from  admiration  of  his  bravery,  than  on  account  of  the  justice 
of  his  cause.  But  that  so  clear  a  murder  might  be  at  least 
atoned  for  by  some  expiation,  the  father  was  commanded  to 
expiate  the  son's  guilt  at  the  public  charge.  He,  having 
offered  certain  expiatory  sacrifices,  which  were  ever  after 
continued  in  the  Horatian  family,  and  laid  a  beam  across 
the  street,  made  the  youth  pass  under  it,  as  under  the  yoke, 
with  his  head  covered.  This  beam  remains  even  to  this  day, 
being  constantly  repaired  at  the  public  expense;  it  is  called 
Sororium  Tigillum  (Sister's  Beam).  A  tomb  of  square  stone 
was  erected  to  Horatia  in  the  spot  where  she  was  stabbed 
and  fell. 

However,  the  peace  with  Alba  did  not  long  continue.  The 
dissatisfaction  of  the  populace  at  the  fortune  of  the  state  hav- 
ing been  intrusted  to  three  soldiers,  perverted  the  wavering 
mind  of  the  dictator;  and  since  straightforward  measures  had 
not  turned  out  well,  he  began  to  conciliate  the  affections  of 
the  populace  by  treacherous  means.  Accordingly,  as  one 
who  had  formerly  sought  peace  in  time  of  war,  and  was  now 
seeking  war  in  time  of  peace,  because  he  perceived  that  his 
own  state  possessed  more  courage  than  strength,  he  stirred 
up  other  nations  to  make  war  openly  and  by  proclamation: 
for  his  own  people  he  reserved  the  work  of  treachery  under 
the  show  of  allegiance.  The  Fidenates,  a  Roman  colony,1  hav- 
ing taken  the  Veientes  into  partnership  in  the  plot,  were  in- 
stigated to  declare  war  and  take  up  arms  under  a  compact  of 
desertion  on  the  part  of  the  Albans.  When  Fidenge  had 
openly  revolted,  Tullus,  after  summoning  Mettius  and  his 
army  from  Alba,  marched  against  the  enemy.  When  he 
crossed  the  Anio,  he  pitched  his  camp  at  the  conflux  of  the 
rivers.2  Between  that  place  and  Fidenae,  the  army  of  the 
Veientes  had  crossed  the  Tiber.  These,  in  the  line  of  battle, 
also  occupied  the  right  wing  near  the  river;  the  Fidenates 
were  posted  on  the  left  nearer  the  mountains.  Tullus  sta- 
tioned his  own  men  opposite  the  Veientine  foe;  the  Albans 
he  posted  to  face  the  legion  of  the  Fidenates.  The  Alban 

1  Evidently  so  established  after  the  destruction  of  the  inhabitants  in 
the  storming  (see  p.  17,  above). — D.  O. 
*  Tiber  and  Anio.— D.  O. 


B.  0.672-640]     THE   ALBANS   DESERT   TULLUS  33 

had  no  more  courage  than  loyalty.  Therefore  neither  daring 
to  keep  his  ground,  nor  to  desert  openly,  he  filed  off  slowly 
to  the  mountains.  After  this,  when  he  supposed  he  had  ad- 
vanced far  enough,  he  led  his  entire  army  uphill,  and  still 
wavering  in  mind,  in  order  to  waste  time,  opened  his  ranks. 
His  design  was,  to  direct  his  forces  to  that  side  on  which 
fortune  should  give  success.  At  first  the  Romans  who  stood 
nearest  were  astonished,  when  they  perceived  their  flanks 
were  exposed  by  the  departure  of  their  allies;  then  a  horse- 
man at  full  gallop  announced  to  the  king  that  the  Albans 
were  moving  off.  Tullus,  in  this  perilous  juncture,  vowed 
twelve  Salii  and  temples  to  Paleness  and  Panic.  Rebuking 
the  horseman  in  a  loud  voice,  so  that  the  enemy  might  hear 
him  plainly,  he  ordered  him  to  return  to  the  ranks,  that 
there  was  no  occasion  for  alarm;  that  it  was  by  his  order 
that  the  Alban  army  was  being  led  round  to  fall  on  the  un- 
protected rear  of  the  Fidenates.  He  likewise  commanded 
him  to  order  the  cavalry  to  raise  their  spears  aloft;  the  exe- 
cution of  this  order  shut  out  the  view  of  the  retreating  Alban 
army  from  a  great  part  of  the  Roman  infantry.  Those  who 
saw  it,  believing  that  it  was  even  so,  as  they  had  heard  from 
the  king,  fought  with  all  the  greater  valour.  The  alarm  was 
transferred  to  the  enemy;  they  had  both  heard  what  had  been 
uttered  so  loudly,  and  a  great  part  of  the  Fidenates,  as  men 
who  had  mixed  as  colonists  with  the  Romans,  understood 
Latin.  Therefore,  that  they  might  not  be  cut  off  from  the 
town  by  a  sudden  descent  of  the  Albans  from  the  hills,  they 
took  to  flight.  Tullus  pressed  forward,  and  having  routed 
the  wing  of  the  Fidenates,  returned  with  greater  fury  against 
the  Veientes,  who  were  disheartened  by  the  panic  of  the 
others :  they  did  not  even  sustain  his  charge ;  but  the  river, 
opposed  to  them  in  the  rear,  prevented  a  disordered  flight. 
When  their  flight  led  thither,  some,  shamefully  throwing  down 
their  arms,  rushed  blindly  into  the  river;  others,  while  linger- 
ing on  the  banks,  undecided  whether  to  fight  or  flee,  were 
overpowered.  Never  before  was  a  more  desperate  battle 
fought  by  the  Romans. 

Then  the  Alban  army,  which  had  been  a  mere  spectator 
of  the  fight,  was  marched  down  into  the  plains.  Mettius  con- 
gratulated Tullus  on  his  victory  over  the  enemy;  Tullus  on 
his  part  addressed  Mettius  with  courtesy.  He  ordered  the 
Albans  to  unite  their  camp  with  that  of  the  Romans,  which 
he  prayed  heaven  might  prove  beneficial  to  both;  and  pre- 
pared a  purificatory  sacrifice  for  the  next  day.  As  soon  as  it 
was  daylight,  all  things  being  in  readiness,  according  to  cus- 


34  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  672-640 

torn,  he  commanded  both  armies  to  be  summoned  to  an  as- 
sembly. The  heralds,  beginning  at  the  farthest  part  of  the 
camp,  summoned  the  Albans  first.  They,  struck  also  with  the 
novelty  of  the  thing,  in  order  to  hear  the  Roman  king  deliver 
a  speech,  crowded  next  to  him.  The  Roman  forces,  under 
arms,  according  to  previous  arrangement,  surrounded  them; 
the  centurions  had  been  charged  to  execute  their  orders  with- 
out delay.  Then  Tullus  began  as  follows:  "  Romans,  if  ever 
before,  at  any  other  time,  in  any  war,  there  was  a  reason  that 
you  should  return  thanks,  first  to  the  immortal  gods,  next 
to  your  own  valour,  it  was  yesterday's  battle.  For  the  strug- 
gle was  not  so  much  with  enemies  as  with  the  treachery  and 
perfidy  of  allies,  a  struggle  which  is  more  serious  and  more 
dangerous.  For — that  you  may  not  be  under  a  mistaken 
opinion — know  that  it  was  without  my  orders  that  the  Albans 
retired  to  the  mountains,  nor  was  that  my  command,  but  a 
stratagem  and  the  mere  pretence  of  a  command:  that  you, 
being  kept  in  ignorance  that  you  were  deserted,  your  atten- 
tion might  not  be  drawn  away  from  the  fight,  and  that  the 
enemy  might  be  inspired  with  terror  and  dismay,  conceiving 
themselves  to  be  surrounded  on  the  rear.  Nor  is  that  guilt, 
which  I  now  complain  of,  shared  by  all  the  Albans.  They 
merely  followed  their  leader,  as  you  too  would  have  done, 
had  I  wished  to  turn  my  army  away  to  any  other  point  from 
thence.  It  is  Mettius  there  who  is  the  leader  of  this  march: 
it  is  Mettius  also  who  is  the  contriver  of  this  war:  it  is  Mettius 
who  is  the  violator  of  the  treaty  between  Rome  and  Alba. 
Let  another  hereafter  venture  to  do  the  like,  if  I  do  not  pres- 
ently make  of  him  a  signal  example  to  mankind."  The  cen- 
turions in  arms  stood  around  Mettius:  the  king  proceeded 
with  the  rest  of  his  speech  as  he  had  commenced :  "  It  is  my 
intention,  and  may  it  prove  fortunate,  happy,  and  auspicious 
to  the  Roman  people,  to  myself,  and  to  you,  O  Albans,  to 
transplant  all  the  inhabitants  of  Alba  to  Rome,  to  grant  your 
commons  the  rights  of  citizenship,  to  admit  your  nobles  into 
the  body  of  senators,  to  make  one  city,  one  state:  as  the 
Alban  state  after  being  one  people  was  formerly  divided  into 
two,  so  let  it  now  again  become  one."  On  hearing  this  the 
Alban  youth,  unarmed,  surrounded  by  armed  men,  although 
divided  in  their  sentiments,  yet  under  pressure  of  the  general 
apprehension  maintained  silence.  Then  Tullus  proceeded: 
"  If,  Mettius  Fufetius,  you  were  capable  of  learning  fidelity, 
and  how  to  observe  treaties,  I  would  have  suffered  you  to  live 
and  have  given  you  such  a  lesson.  But  as  it  is,  since  your 
disposition  is  incurable,  do  you  at  any  rate  by  your  punish- 


B.  €.672-640]  DESTRUCTION   OF   ALBA  35 

ment  teach  mankind  to  consider  those  obligations  sacred, 
which  have  been  violated  by  you?  As  therefore  a  little  while 
since  you  kept  your  mind  divided  between  the  interests  of 
Fidenae  and  of  Rome,  so  shall  you  now  surrender  your  body 
to  be  torn  asunder  in  different  directions."  Upon  this,  two 
chariots  drawn  by  four  horses  being  brought  up,  he  bound 
Mettius  stretched  at  full  length  to  their  carriages:  then  the 
horses  were  driven  in  different  directions,  carrying  off  his 
mangled  body  on  each  carriage,  where  the  limbs  had  remained 
hanging  to  the  cords.  All  turned  away  their  eyes  from  so 
shocking  a  spectacle.  That  was  the  first  and  last  instance 
among  the  Romans  of  a  punishment  which  established  a 
precedent  that  showed  but  little  regard  for  the  laws  of  human- 
ity. In  other  cases  we  may  boast  that  no  other  nation  has 
approved  of  milder  forms  of  punishment.1 

Meanwhile  the  cavalry  had  already  been  sent  on  to  Alba, 
to  transplant  the  people  to  Rome.  The  legions  were  next  led 
thither  to  demolish  the  city.  When  they  entered  the  gates, 
there  was  not  indeed  such  a  tumult  or  panic  as  usually  pre- 
vails in  captured  cities,  when,  after  the  gates  have  been  burst 
open,  or  the  walls  levelled  by  the  battering-ram,  or  the  citadel 
taken  by  assault,  the  shouts  of  the  enemy  and  rush  of  armed 
men  through  the  city  throws  everything  into  confusion  with 
fire  and  sword:  but  gloomy  silence  and  speechless  sorrow  so 
stupefied  the  minds  of  all,  that,  through  fear,  paying  no  heed 
as  to  what  they  should  leave  behind,  what  they  should  take 
with  them,  in  their  perplexity,  making  frequent  inquiries  one 
of  another,  they  now  stood  on  the  thresholds,  now  wandering 
about,  roamed  through  their  houses,  which  they  were  destined 
to  see  then  for  the  last  time.  When  now  the  shouts  of  the 
horsemen  commanding  them  to  depart  became  urgent,  and 
the  crash  of  the  dwellings  which  were  being  demolished  was 
heard  in  the  remotest  parts  of  the  city,  and  the  dust,  rising 
from  distant  places,  had  filled  every  quarter  as  with  a  cloud 
spread  over  them ;  then,  hastily  carrying  out  whatever  each 
of  them  could,  while  they  went  forth,  leaving  behind  them 
their  guardian  deity  and  household  gods,2  and  the  homes  in 
which  each  had  been  born  and  brought  up,  an  unbroken  line 
of  emigrants  soon  filled  the  streets,  and  the  sight  of  others 

'  !  Scourging  and  beheading,  scourging  to  death,  burying  alive,  and 
crucifixion  (for  slaves)  may  make  us  question  the  justice  of  this  boast. 
Foreign  generals  captured  in  war  were  only  strangled.  Altogether,  the 
Roman  indifference  to  suffering  was  very  marked  as  compared  with  the 
humanity  of  the  Greeks. — D.  O. 

*  The  Lares  were  of  human  origin,  being  only  the  deified  ancestors  of 
the  family :  the  Penates  of  divine  origin,  the  tutelary  gods  of  the  family. 


36  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.672-640 

caused  their  tears  to  break  out  afresh  in  pity  for  one  another: 
piteous  cries  too  were  heard,  of  the  women  more  especially, 
as  they  passed  by  their  revered  temples  now  beset  with  armed 
men,  and  left  their  gods  as  it  were  in  captivity.  After  the 
Albans  had  evacuated  the  town,  the  Roman  soldiery  levelled 
all  the  public  and  private  buildings  indiscriminately  to  the 
ground,  and  a  single  hour  consigned  to .  destruction  and  ruin 
the  work  of  four  hundred  years,  during  which  Alba  had  stood. 
The  temples  of  the  gods,  however — for  so  it  had  been  ordered 
by  the  king — were  spared. 

In  the  meantime  Rome  increased  by  the  destruction  of 
Alba.  The  number  of  citizens  was  doubled.  The  Coelian 
Mount  was  added  to  the  city,  and,  in  order  that  it  might  be 
more  thickly  populated,  Tullus  selected  it  as  a  site  for  his 
palace,  and  subsequently  took  up  his  abode  there.  The  lead- 
ing men  of  the  Albans  he  enrolled  among  the  patricians,  that 
that  division  of  the  state  also  might  increase,  the  Tullii,  Ser- 
vilii,  Quinctii,  Geganii,  Curiatii,  Cloelii;  and  as  a  consecrated 
place  of  meeting  for  the  order  thus  augmented  by  himself  he 
built  a  senate-house,  which  was  called  Hostilia  *  even  down  to 
the  time  of  our  fathers.  Further,  that  all  ranks  might  ac- 
quire some  additional  strength  from  the  new  people,  he  chose 
ten  troops  of  horsemen  from  among  the  Albans:  he  likewise 
recruited  the  old  legions,  and  raised  new  ones,  by  additions 
from  the  same  source.  Trusting  to  this  increase  of  strength, 
Tullus  declared  war  against  the  Sabines,  a  nation  at  that  time 
the  most  powerful,  next  to  the  Etruscans,  in  men  and  arms. 
On  both  sides  wrongs  had  been  committed,  and  satisfaction 
demanded  in  vain.  Tullus  complained  that  some  Roman  mer- 
chants had  been  seized  in  a  crowded  market  near  the  temple 
of  Feronia : 2  the  Sabines  that  some  of  their  people  had  pre- 
viously taken  refuge  in  the  asylum,  and  had  been  detained 
at  Rome.  These  were  put  forward  as  the  causes  of  the  war. 
The  Sabines,  well  aware  both  that  a  portion  of  their  strength 
had  been  settled  at  Rome  by  Tatius,  and  that  the  Roman 
power  had  also  been  lately  increased  by  the  accession  of  the 
Alban  people,  began,  in  like  manner,  to  look  around  for  for- 
eign aid  themselves.  Etruria  was  in  their  neighbourhood; 
of  the  Etruscans  the  Veientes  were  the  nearest.  From  thence 
they  attracted  some  volunteers,  whose  minds  were  stirred  up 
to  break  the  truce,  chiefly  in  consequence  of  the  rankling  ani- 
mosities from  former  wars.  Pay  also  had  its  weight  with  some 

*  "Curia  Hostilia."      It  was  at  the  northwest  corner  of  the  forum, 
northeast  of  the  comitium. — D.  O. 

*  Identified  with  Juno. — D.  O. 


B.  c.  672-640]         DEFEAT  OK  THE  SABINES  37 

stragglers  belonging  to  the  indigent  population.  They  were 
assisted  by  no  aid  from  the  government,  and  the  loyal  ob- 
servation of  the  truce  concluded  with  Romulus  was  strictly 
kept  by  the  Veientes:  with  respect  to  the  others  it  is  less  sur- 
prising. While  both  sides  were  preparing  for  war  with  the 
utmost  vigour,  and  the  matter  seemed  to  turn  on  this,  which 
side  should  first  commence  hostilities,  Tullus  advanced  first 
into  the  Sabine  territory.  A  desperate  battle  took  place  at 
the  wood  called  Malitiosa,  in  which  the  Roman  army  gained 
a  decisive  advantage,  both  by  reason  of  the  superior  strength 
of  their  infantry,  and  also,  more  especially,  by  the  aid  of  their 
cavalry,  which  had  been  recently  increased.  The  Sabine  ranks 
were  thrown  into  disorder  by  a  sudden  charge  of  the  cavalry, 
nor  could  they  afterward  stand  firm  in  battle  array,  or  retreat 
in  loose  order  without  great  slaughter. 

After  the  defeat  of  the  Sabines,  when  the  government  of 
Tullus  and  the  whole  Roman  state  enjoyed  great  renown, 
and  was  highly  flourishing,  it  was  announced  to  the  king  and 
senators,  that  it  had  rained  stones  on  the  Alban  Mount.  As 
this  could  scarcely  be  credited,  on  persons  being  sent  to  in- 
vestigate the  prodigy,  a  shower  of  stones  fell  from  heaven 
before  their  eyes,  just  as  when  balls  of  hail  are  pelted  down 
to  the  earth  by  the  winds.  They  also  seemed  to  hear  a  loud 
voice  from  the  grove  on  the  summit  of  the  hill,  bidding  the 
Albans  perform  their  religious  services  according  to  the  rites 
of  their  native  country,  which  they  had  consigned  to  ob- 
livion, as  if  their  gods  had  been  abandoned  at  the  same  time 
as  their  country;  and  had  either  adopted  the  religious  rites 
of  Rome,  or,  as  often  happens,  enraged  at  their  evil  destiny, 
had  altogether  renounced  the  worship  of  the  gods.  A  festival 
of  nine  days  was  instituted  publicly  by  the  Romans  also  on 
account  of  the  same  prodigy,  either  in  obedience  to  the  heav- 
enly voice  sent  from  the  Alban  Mount — for  that,  too,  is  re- 
ported— or  by  the  advice  of  the  soothsayers.  Anyhow,  it  con- 
tinued a  solemn  observance,  that,  whenever  a  similar  prodigy 
was  announced,  a  festival  for  nine  days  was  observed.  Not 
long  after,  they  were  afflicted  with  an  epidemic;  and  though 
in  consequence  of  this  there  arose  an  unwillingness  to  serve, 
yet  no  respite  from  arms  was  given  them  by  the  warlike 
king,  who  considered  besides  that  the  bodies  of  the  young 
men  were  more  healthy  when  on  service  abroad  than  at  home, 
until  he  himself  also  was  attacked  by  a  lingering  disease. 
Then  that  proud  spirit  and  body  became  so  broken,  that  he, 
who  had  formerly  considered  nothing  less  worthy  of  a  king 
than  to  devote  his  mind  to  religious  observances,  began  to 


38  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.640-616 

pass  his  time  a  slave  to  every  form  of  superstition,  impor- 
tant and  trifling,  and  filled  the  people's  minds  also  with  re- 
ligious scruples.  The  majority  of  his  subjects,  now  desiring 
the  restoration  of  that  state  of  things  which  had  existed  under 
King  Numa,  thought  that  the  only  chance  of  relief  for  their 
diseased  bodies  lay  in  grace  and  compassion  being  obtained 
from  the  gods.  It  is  said  that  the  king  himself,  turning  over 
the  commentaries  of  Numa,  after  he  had  found  therein  that 
certain  sacrifices  of  a  secret  and  solemn  nature  had  been  per- 
formed to  Jupiter  Elicius,  shut  himself  up  and  set  about  the 
performance  of  those  solemnities,  but  that  that  rite  was  not 
duly  undertaken  or  carried  out,  and  that  not  only  was  no 
heavenly  manifestation  vouchsafed  to  him,  but  he  and  his  house 
were  struck  by  lightning  and  burned  to  ashes,  through  the 
anger  of  Jupiter,  who  was  exasperated  at  the  ceremony  having 
been  improperly  performed.1  Tullus  reigned  two-and-thirty 
years  with  great  military  renown. 

On  the  death  of  Tullus,  according  to  the  custom  estab- 
lished in  the  first  instance,  the  government  devolved  once 
more  upon  the  senate,  who  nominated  an  interrex;  and  on 
his  holding  the  comitia,  the  people  elected  Ancus  Marcius 
king.  The  fathers  ratified  the  election.  Ancus  Marcius  was 
the  grandson  of  King  Numa  Pompilius  by  his  daughter.  As 
soon  as  he  began  to  reign,  mindful  of  the  renown  of  his  grand- 
father, and  reflecting  that  the  last  reign,  glorious  as  it  had 
been  in  every  other  respect,  in  one  particular  had  not  been 
adequately  prosperous,  either  because  the  rites  of  religion  had 
been  utterly  neglected,  or  improperly  performed,  and  deem- 
ing it  of  the  highest  importance  to  perform  the  public  cere- 
monies of  religion,  as  they  had  been  instituted  by  Numa,  he 
ordered  the  pontiff,  after  he  had  recorded  them  all  from  the 
king's  commentaries  on  white  tables,  to  set  them  up  in  a 
public  place.  Hence,  as  both  his  own  subjects,  and  the  neigh- 
bouring nations  desired  peace,  hope  was  entertained  that  the 
king  would  adopt  the  conduct  and  institutions  of  his  grand- 
father. Accordingly,  the  Latins,  with  whom  a  treaty  had  been 
concluded  in  the  reign  of  Tullus,  gained  fresh  courage;  and, 
after  they  had  invaded  Roman  territory,  returned  a  con- 
temptuous answer  to  the  Romans  when  they  demanded  satis- 
faction, supposing  that  the  Roman  king  would  spend  his  reign 
in  indolence  among  chapels  and  altars.  The  disposition  of 
Ancus  was  between  two  extremes,  preserving  the  qualities 

1  This  story  makes  us  suspect  that  it  was  the  case  of  another  warlike 
king  who  had  incurred  the  enmity  of  the  senate.  The  patricians  alone 
controlled  or  were  taught  in  religious  matters. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  640-616]      ANGUS   MARCIUS   MADE    KING  39 

of  both  Numa  and  Romulus ;  and,  besides  believing  that  peace 
was  more  necessary  in  his  grandfather's  reign,  since  the  peo- 
ple were  then  both  newly  formed  and  uncivilized,  he  also 
felt  that  he  could  not  easily  preserve  the  tranquility  unmo- 
lested which  had  fallen  to  his  lot:  that  his  patience  was  being 
tried,  and  being  tried,  was  despised:  and  that  the  times  gen- 
erally were  more  suited  to  a  King  Tullus  than  to  a  Numa. 
In  order,  however,  that,  since  Numa  had  instituted  religious 
rites  in  peace,  ceremonies  relating  to  war  might  be  drawn  up 
by  him,  and  that  wars  might  not  only  be  waged,  but  pro- 
claimed also  in  accordance  with  some  prescribed  form,  he 
borrowed  from  an  ancient  nation,  the  ^Equicolae,  and  drew  up 
the  form  which  the  heralds  observe  to  this  day,  according  to 
which  restitution  is  demanded.  The  ambassador,  when  he 
reaches  the  frontiers  of  the  people  from  whom  satisfaction 
is  demanded,  having  his  head  covered  with  a  fillet — this  cov- 
ering is  of  wool — says:  "  Hear,  O  Jupiter,  hear,  ye  confines  " 
(naming  whatsoever  nation  they  belong  to),  "  let  divine  justice 
hear.  I  am  the  public  messenger  of  the  Roman  people;  I 
come  deputed  by  right  and  religion,  and  let  my  words  gain 
credit."  He  then  definitely  states  his  demands;  afterward  he 
calls  Jupiter  to  witness :  "  If  I  demand  these  persons  and 
these  goods  to  be  given  up  to  me  contrary  to  human  or  divine 
right,  then  mayest  thou  never  permit  me  to  enjoy  my  native 
country."  These  words  he  repeats  when  he  passes  over  the 
frontiers:  the  same  to  the  first  man  he  meets:  the  same  on 
entering  the  gate:  the  same  on  entering  the  forum,  with  a 
slight  change  of  expression  in  the  form  of  the  declaration 
and  drawing  up  of  the  oath.  If  the  persons  whom  he  demands 
are  not  delivered  up,  after  the  expiration  of  thirty-three  days 
— for  this  number  is  enjoined  by  rule — he  declares  war  in  the 
following  terms :  "  Hear,  Jupiter,  and  thou,  Janus  Quirinus, 
and  all  ye  celestial,  terrestrial,  and  infernal  gods,  give  ear! 
I  call  you  to  witness,  that  this  nation  "  (mentioning  its  name) 
"is  unjust,  and  does  not  carry  out  the  principles  of  justice: 
however,  we  will  consult  the  elders  in  our  own  country  con- 
cerning those  matters,  by  what  means  we  may  obtain  our 
rights."  The  messenger  returns  with  them  to  Rome  to  con- 
sult. The  king  used  immediately  to  consult  the  fathers  as 
nearly  as  possible  in  the  following  words:  "  Concerning  such 
things,  causes  of  dispute,  and  quarrels,  as  the  pater  patratus 
of  the  Roman  people,  the  Quirites,  has  treated  with  the  pater 
patratus  of  the  ancient  Latins,  and  with  the  ancient  Latin 
people,  which  things  ought  to  be  given  up,  made  good,  dis- 
charged, which  things  they  have  neither  given  up,  nor  made 


40  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [3.0.640-616 

good,  nor  discharged,  declare,"  says  he  to  him,  whose  opinion 
he  asked  first,  "  what  think  you?  "  Then  he  replies:  "  I  think 
that  they  should  be  demanded  by  a  war  free  from  guilt  and 
regularly  declared;  and  accordingly  I  agree,  and  vote  for  it." 
Then  the  others  were  asked  in  order,  and  when  the  majority 
of  those  present  expressed  the  same  opinion,  war  was  agreed 
upon.  It  was  customary  for  the  fetialis  to  carry  in  his  hand 
a  spear  pointed  with  steel,  or  burned  at  the  end  and  dipped  in 
blood,  to  the  confines  of  the  enemy's  country,  and  in  presence 
of  at  least  three  grown-up  persons,  to  say,  "  Forasmuch  as  the 
states  of  the  ancient  Latins,  and  the  ancient  Latin  people,  have 
offended  against  the  Roman  people  of  the  Quirites,  forasmuch 
as  the  Roman  people  of  the  Quirites  have  ordered  that  there 
should  be  war  with  the  ancient  Latins,  and  the  senate  of  the 
Roman  people,  the  Quirites,  have  given  their  opinion,  agreed, 
and  voted  that  war  should  be  waged  with  the  ancient  Latins, 
on  this  account  I  and  the  Roman  people  declare  and  wage 
war  on  the  states  of  the  ancient  Latins,  and  on  the  ancient 
Latin  people."  Whenever  he  said  that,  he  used  to  hurl  the 
spear  within  their  confines.  After  this  manner  at  that  time 
satisfaction  was  demanded  from  the  Latins,  and  war  pro- 
claimed: and  posterity  has  adopted  that  usage. 

Ancus,  having  intrusted  the  care  of  sacred  matters  to  the 
flamens  and  other  priests,  set  out  with  an  army  freshly  levied, 
and  took  Politorium,  a  city  of  the  Latins,  by  storm:  and  fol- 
lowing the  example  of  former  kings,  who  had  increased  the 
Roman  power  by  incorporating  enemies  into  the  state,  trans- 
planted all  the  people  to  Rome.  And  since  the  Sabines  had 
occupied  the  Capitol  and  citadel,  and  the  Albans  the  Coelian 
Mount  on  both  sides  of  the  Palatium,  the  dwelling-place  of 
the  old  Romans,  the  Aventine  was  assigned  to  the  new  peo- 
ple; not  long  after,  on  the  capture  of  Tellense  and  Ficana, 
new  citizens  were  added  to  the  same  quarter.  After  this  Poli- 
torium, which  the  ancient  Latins  had  taken  possession  of  when 
vacated,  was  taken  a  second  time  by  force  of  arms.  This  was 
the  cause  of  the  Romans  demolishing  that  city,  that  it  might 
never  after  serve  as  a  place  of  refuge  for  the  enemy.  At  last, 
the  war  with  the  Latins  being  entirely  concentrated  at  Me- 
dullia,  the  contest  was  carried  on  there  for  some  time  with 
changing  success,  according  as  the  fortune  of  war  varied: 
for  the  town  was  both  well  protected  by  fortified  works,  and 
strengthened  by  a  powerful  garrison,  and  the  Latins,  having 
pitched  their  camp  in  the  open,  had  several  times  come  to  a 
close  engagement  with  the  Romans.  At  last  Ancus,  making 
an  effort  with  all  his  forces,  first  defeated  them  in  a  pitched 


B.  c.  640-616]      LUCIUS  TARQUINIUS  PRISCUS  41 

battle,  and,  enriched  by  considerable  booty,  returned  thence 
to  Rome:  many  thousands  of  the  Latins  were  then  also  ad- 
mitted to  citizenship,  to  whom,  in  order  that  the  Aventine 
might  be  united  to  the  Palatium,  a  settlement  was  assigned 
near  the  Temple  of  Murcia.1  The  Janiculum  2  was  likewise 
added,  not  from  want  of  room,  but  lest  at  any  time  it  should 
become  a  stronghold  for  the  enemy.  It  was  resolved  that  it 
should  not  only  be  surrounded  by  a  wall,  but  also,  for  con- 
venience of  passage,  be  united  to  the  city  by  a  wooden  bridge, 
which  was  then  for  the  first  time  built  across  the  Tiber.  The 
fossa  Quiritium,  no  inconsiderable  defence  in  places  where 
the  ground  was  lower  and  consequently  easier  of  access,  was 
also  the  work  of  King  Ancus.  The  state  being  augmented  by 
such  great  accessions,  seeing  that,  amid  such  a  multitude  of 
inhabitants  (all  distinction  of  right  and  wrong  being  as  yet 
confounded),  secret  crimes  were  committed,  a  prison3  was  built 
in  the  heart  of  the  city,  overlooking  the  forum,  to  intimidate 
the  growing  licentiousness.  And  not  only  was  the  city  in- 
creased under  this  king,  but  also  its  territory  and  boundaries. 
After  the  Mesian  forest  had  been  taken  from  the  Veientines, 
the  Roman  dominion  was  extended  as  far  as  the  sea,  and  the 
city  of  Ostia  built  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber;  salt-pits  were 
dug  around  it,  and,  in  consequence  of  the  distinguished  suc- 
cesses in  war,  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Feretrius  was  enlarged. 

In  the  reign  of  Ancus,  Lucumo,4  a  wealthy  and  enterpris- 
ing man,  came  to  settle  at  Rome,  prompted  chiefly  by  the 
desire  and  hope  of  high  preferment,  which  he  had  no  oppor- 
tunity of  obtaining  at  Tarquinii  (for  there  also  he  was  de- 
scended from  an  alien  stock).  He  was  the  son  of  Demaratus, 
a  Corinthian,  who,  an  exile  from  his  country  on  account  of 
civil  disturbances,  had  chanced  to  settle  at  Tarquinii,  and 
having  married  a  wife  there,  had  two  sons  by  her.  Their 
names  were  Lucumo  and  Arruns.  Lucumo  survived  his 
father,  and  became  heir  to  all  his  property.  Arruns  died  be- 
fore his  father,  leaving  a  wife  pregnant.  The  father  did  not 
long  survive  the  son,  and  as  he,  not  knowing  that  his  daughter- 
in-law  was  pregnant,  had  died  without  mentioning  his  grand- 
child in  his  will,  the  boy  who  was  born  after  the  death  of  his 
grandfather,  and  had  no  share  in  his  fortune,  was  given  the 
name  of  Egerius  on  account  of  his  poverty.  Lucumo,  who  was, 

1  Supposed  to  be  an  Etruscan  goddess,  afterward  identified  with  Jana, 
the  female  form  of  Janus,  as  was  customary  with  the  Romans. — D.  O. 

*  The  heights  across  the  Tiber. — D.  O. 

8  Called  Mamertinus,  though  apparently  not  until  the  Middle  Ages. 

4  Lucumo  seems  to  have  been,  originally  at  least,  an  Etruscan  title 
rather  than  name. — D.  O. 


42  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  640-616 

on  the  other  hand,  the  heir  of  all  his  father's  property,  being 
filled  with  high  aspirations  by  reason  of  his  wealth,  had 
these  ambitions  greatly  advanced  by  his  marriage  with  Tana- 
quil,  who  was  descended  from  a  very  high  family,  and  was  a 
woman  who  would  not  readily  brook  that  the  condition  into 
which  she  had  married  should  be  inferior  to  that  in  which  she 
had  been  born.  As  the  Etruscans  despised  Lucumo,  as  being 
sprung  from  a  foreign  exile,  she  could  not  put  up  with  the 
affront,  and,  regardless  of  the  natural  love  of  her  native  coun- 
try, provided  only  she  could  see  her  husband  advanced  to 
honour,  she  formed  the  design  of  leaving  Tarquinii.  Rome 
seemed  particularly  suited  for  that  purpose.  In  a  state,  lately 
founded,  where  all  nobility  is  rapidly  gained  and  as  the  re- 
ward of  merit,  there  would  be  room  (she  thought)  for  a  man 
of  courage  and  activity.  Tatius,  a  Sabine,  had  been  king  of 
Rome:  Numa  had  been  sent  for  from  Cures  to  reign  there: 
Ancus  was  sprung  from  a  Sabine  mother,  and  rested  his  title 
to  nobility  on  the  single  statue  of  Numa.1  Without  difficulty 
she  persuaded  him,  being,  as  he  was,  ambitious  of  honours, 
and  one  to  whom  Tarquinii  was  his  country  only  on  his 
mother's  side.  Accordingly,  removing  their  effects,  they  set 
out  for  Rome.  They  happened  to  have  reached  the  Janicu- 
lum:  there,  as  he  sat  in  the  chariot  with  his  wife,  an  eagle, 
gently  swooping  down  on  floating  wings,  took  off  his  cap, 
and  hovering  above  the  chariot  with  loud  screams,  as  if  it 
had  been  sent  from  heaven  for  that  very  purpose,  carefully 
replaced  it  on  his  head,  and  then  flew  aloft  out  of  sight. 
Tanaquil  is  said  to  have  joyfully  welcomed  this  omen,  being 
a  woman  well  skilled,  as  the  Etruscans  generally  are,  in  celes- 
tial prodigies,  and,  embracing  her  husband,  bade  him  hope  for 
a  high  and  lofty  destiny:  that  such  a  bird  had  come  from 
such  a  quarter  of  the  heavens,  and  the  messenger  of  such  a 
god:  that  it  had  declared  the  omen  around  the  highest  part 
of  man:  that  it  had  lifted  the  ornament  placed  on  the  head 
of  man,  to  restore  it  to  him  again,  by  direction  of  the  gods. 
Bearing  with  them  such  hopes  and  thoughts,  they  entered 
the  city,  and  having  secured  a  dwelling  there,  they  gave  out 
his  name  as  Lucius  Tarquinius  Priscus.  The  fact  that  he  was 
a  stranger  and  his  wealth  rendered  him  an  object  of  attention 
to  the  Romans.  He  himself  also  promoted  his  own  good 
fortune  by  his  affable  address,  by  the  courteousness  of  his 
invitations,  and  by  gaining  over  to  his  side  all  whom  he  could 

1  No  one  was  noble  who  could  not  show  images  of  his  ancestors  :  and 
no  one  was  allowed  to  have  an  image  who  had  not  filled  the  highest  offices 
of  state  :  this  was  called  jus  imaginum. 


B.  C.  616-578]     TARQUIN   OBTAINS  THE   RULE  43 

by  acts  of  kindness,  until  reports  concerning  him  reached 
even  to  the  palace:  and  that  notoriety  he,  in  a  short  time, 
by  paying  his  court  to  the  king  without  truckling  and  with 
skilful  address,  improved  so  far  as  to  be  admitted  on  a  footing 
of  intimate  friendship,  so  much  so  that  he  was  present  at  all 
public  and  private  deliberations  alike,  both  foreign  and  do- 
mestic; and  being  now  proved  in  every  sphere,  he  was  at 
length,  by  the  king's  will,  also  appointed  guardian  to  his 
children. 

Ancus  reigned  twenty-four  years,  equal  to  any  of  the 
former  kings  both  in  the  arts  of  war  and  peace,  and  in  renown. 
His  sons  were  now  nigh  the  age  of  puberty ;  for  which  reason 
Tarquin  was  more  urgent  that  the  assembly  for  the  election 
of  a  king  should  be  held  as  soon  as  possible.  The  assembly 
having  been  proclaimed,  he  sent  the  boys  out  of  the  way  to 
hunt  just  before  the  time  of  the  meeting.  He  is  said  to  have 
been  the  first  who  canvassed  for  the  crown,  and  to  have  made 
a  speech  expressly  worded  with  the  object  of  gaining  the  af- 
fections of  the  people :  saying  that  he  did  not  aim  at  anything 
unprecedented,  for  that  he  was  not  the  first  foreigner  (a  thing 
at  which  any  one  might  feel  indignation  or  surprise),  but  the 
third  who  aspired  to  the  sovereignty  of  Rome.  That  Tatius 
who  had  not  only  been  an  alien,  but  even  an  enemy,  had  been 
made  king;  that  Numa,  who  knew  nothing  of  the  city,  and 
without  solicitation  on  his  part,  had  been  voluntarily  invited 
by  them  to  the  throne.  That  he,  from  the  time  he  was  his 
own  master,  had  migrated  to  Rome  with  his  wife  and  whole 
fortune,  and  had  spent  a  longer  period  of  that  time  of  life, 
during  which  men  are  employed  in  civil  offices,  at  Rome,  than 
he  had  in  his  native  country;  that  he  had  both  in  peace  and 
war  become  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  political  and 
religious  institutions  of  the  Romans,  under  a  master  by  no 
means  to  be  despised,  King  Ancus  himself;  that  he  had  vied 
with  all  in  duty  and  loyalty  to  his  king,  and  with  the  king 
himself  in  his  bounty  to  others.  While  he  was  recounting 
these  undoubted  facts,  the  people  with  great  unanimity  elected 
him  king.  The  same  spirit  of  ambition  which  had  prompted 
Tarquin,  in  other  respects  an  excellent  man,  to  aspire  to  the 
crown,  attended  him  also  on  the  throne.  And  being  no  less 
mindful  of  strengthening  his  own  power,  than  of  increasing 
the  commonwealth,  he  elected  a  hundred  new  members  into 
the  senate,  who  from  that  time  were  called  minorum  gentium, 
a  party  who  stanchly  supported  the  king,  by  whose  favour 
they  had  been  admitted  into  the  senate.  The  first  war  he 
waged  was  with  the  Latins,  in  whose  territory  he  took  the 


44  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  616-578 

town  of  Apiolae  by  storm,  and  having  brought  back  thence 
more  booty  than  might  have  been  expected  from  the  reported 
importance  of  the  war,  he  celebrated  games  with  more  mag- 
nificence and  display  than  former  kings.  The  place  for  the 
circus,  which  is  now  called  Maximus,  was  then  first  marked 
out,  and  spaces  were  apportioned  to  the  senators  and  knights, 
where  they  might  each  erect  seats  for  themselves:  these  were 
called  fori  (benches).  They  viewed  the  games  from  scaffold- 
ing which  supported  seats  twelve  feet  in  height  from  the 
ground.  The  show  consisted  of  horses  and  boxers  that  were 
summoned,  chiefly  from  Etruria.  These  solemn  games,  after- 
ward celebrated  annually,  continued  an  institution,  being 
afterward  variously  called  the  Roman  and  Great  games.  By 
the  same  king  also  spaces  round  the  forum  were  assigned 
to  private  individuals  for  building  on;  covered  walks  and 
shops  were  erected. 

He  was  also  preparing  to  surround  the  city  with  a  stone 
wall,  when  a  war  with  the  Sabines  interrupted  his  plans.  The 
whole  thing  was  so  sudden,  that  the  enemy  passed  the  Anio 
before  the  Roman  army  could  meet  and  prevent  them:  great 
alarm  therefore  was  felt  at  Rome.  At  first  they  fought  with 
doubtful  success,  and  with  great  slaughter  on  both  sides. 
After  this,  the  enemy's  forces  were  led  back  into  camp,  and 
the  Romans  having  thus  gained  time  to  make  preparations  for 
the  war  afresh,  Tarquin,  thinking  that  the  weak  point  of  his 
army  lay  specially  in  the  want  of  cavalry,  determined  to  add 
other  centuries  to  the  Ramnenses,  Titienses,  and  Luceres 
which  Romulus  had  enrolled,  and  to  leave  them  distinguished 
by  his  own  name.  Because  Romulus  had  done  this  after  in- 
quiries by  augury,  Attus  Navius,  a  celebrated  soothsayer  of 
the  day,  insisted  that  no  alteration  or  new  appointment  could 
be  made,  unless  the  birds  had  approved  of  it.  The  king,  en- 
raged at  this,  and,  as  they  say,  mocking  at  his  art,  said, 
"  Come,  thou  diviner,  tell  me,  whether  what  I  have  in  my 
mind  can  be  done  or  not?  "  When  Attus,  having  tried  the 
matter  by  divination,  affirmed  that  it  certainly  could,  "  Well, 
then,"  said  he,  "  I  was  thinking  that  you  should  cut  asunder 
this  whetstone  with  a  razor.  Take  it,  then,  and  perform  what 
thy  birds  portend  can  be  done."  Thereupon  they  say  that  he 
immediately  cut  the  whetstone  in  two.  A  statue  of  Attus, 
with  his  head  veiled,  was  erected  in  the  comitium,  close  to 
the  steps  on  the  left  of  the  senate-house,  on  the  spot  where 
the  event  occurred.  They  say  also  that  the  whetstone  was 
deposited  in  the  same  place,  that  it  might  remain  as  a  record 
of  that  miracle  to  posterity.  Without  doubt  so  much  honour 


B.  c.  616-578]       PEACE   WITH   THE  SABINES  45 

accrued  to  auguries  and  the  college  of  augurs,  that  nothing 
was  subsequently  undertaken  either  in  peace  or  war  without 
taking  the  auspices,  and  assemblies  of  the  people,  the  sum- 
moning of  armies,  and  the  most  important  affairs  of  state  were 
put  off,  whenever  the  birds  did  not  prove  propitious.  Nor  did 
Tarquin  then  make  any  other  alteration  in  the  centuries  of 
horse,  except  that  he  doubled  the  number  of  men  in  each  of 
these  divisions,  so  that  the  three  centuries  consisted  of  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  knights ;  only,  those  that  were  added 
were  called  "  the  younger,"  but  by  the  same  names  as  the 
earlier,  which,  because  they  have  been  doubled,  they  now  call 
the  six  centuries. 

This  part  of  his  forces  being  augmented,  a  second  engage- 
ment took  place  with  the  Sabines.  But,  besides  that  the 
strength  of  the  Roman  army  had  been  thus  augmented,  a 
stratagem  also  was  secretly  resorted  to,  persons  being  sent 
to  throw  into  the  river  a  great  quantity  of  timber  that  lay 
on  the  banks  of  the  Anio,  after  it  had  been  first  set  on  fire; 
and  the  wood,  being  further  kindled  by  the  help  of  the  wind, 
and  the  greater  part  of  it,  that  was  placed  on  rafts,  being 
driven  against  and  sticking  in  the  piles,  fired  the  bridge.  This 
accident  also  struck  terror  into  the  Sabines  during  the  battle, 
and,  after  they  were  routed,  also  impeded  their  flight.  Many, 
after  they  had  escaped  the  enemy,  perished  in  the  river:  their 
arms  floating  down  the  Tiber  to  the  city,  and  being  recog- 
nised, made  the  victory  known  almost  before  any  announce- 
ment of  it  could  be  made.  In  that  action  the  chief  credit 
rested  with  the  cavalry:  they  say  that,  being  posted  on  the 
two  wings,  when  the  centre  of  their  own  infantry  was  now 
being  driven  back,  they  charged  so  briskly  in  flank,  that  they 
not  only  checked  the  Sabine  legions  who  pressed  hard  on 
those  who  were  retreating,  but  suddenly  put  them  to  flight. 
The  Sabines  made  for  the  mountains  in  disordered  flight,  but 
only  a  few  reached  them;  for,  as  has  been  said  before,  most 
of  them  were  driven  by  the  cavalry  into  the  river.  Tarquin, 
thinking  it  advisable  to  press  the  enemy  hard  while  in  a  state 
of  panic,  having  sent  the  booty  and  the  prisoners  to  Rome, 
and  piled  in  a  large  heap  and  burned  the  enemy's  spoils,  vowed 
as  an  offering  to  Vulcan,  proceeded  to  lead  his  army  onward 
into  the  Sabine  territory.  And  though  the  operation  had 
been  unsuccessfully  carried  out,  and  they  could  not  hope  for 
better  success ;  yet,  because  the  state  of  affairs  did  not  allow 
time  for  deliberation,  the  Sabines  came  out  to  meet  him  with 
a  hastily  raised  army.  Being  again  routed  there,  as  the  situa- 
tion had  now  become  almost  desperate,  they  sued  for  peace. 


46  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  616-578 

Collatia  and  all  the  land  round  about  was  taken  from  the 
Sabines,  and  Egerius,  son  of  the  king's  brother,  was  left  there 
in  garrison.  I  learn  that  the  people  of  Collatia  were  sur- 
rendered, and  that  the  form  of  the  surrender  was  as  follows. 
The  king  asked  them,  "  Are  ye  ambassadors  and  deputies  sent 
by  the  people  of  Collatia  to  surrender  yourselves  and  the 
people  of  Collatia?  "  "  We  are."  "  Are  the  people  of  Collatia 
their  own  masters?  "  "  They  are."  "  Do  ye  surrender  your- 
selves and  the  people  of  Collatia,  their  city,  lands,  water, 
boundaries,  temples,  utensils,  and  everything  sacred  or  pro- 
fane belonging  to  them,  into  my  power,  and  that  of  the  Roman 
people?"  "We  do."  "Then  I  receive  them."  When  the 
Sabine  war  was  finished,  Tarquin  returned  in  triumph  to 
Rome.  After  that  he  made  war  upon  the  ancient  Latins, 
wherein  they  came  on  no  occasion  to  a  decisive  engagement; 
yet,  by  shifting  his  attack  to  the  several  towns,  he  subdued 
the  whole  Latin  nation.  Corniculum,  old  Ficulea,  Cameria, 
Crustumerium,  Ameriola,  Medullia,  and  Nomentum,  towns 
which  either  belonged  to  the  ancient  Latins,  or  which  had  re- 
volted to  them,  were  taken  from  them.  Upon  this,  peace  was 
concluded.  Works  of  peace  were  then  commenced  with  even 
greater  spirit  than  the  efforts  with  which  he  had  conducted 
his  wars,  so  that  the  people  enjoyed  no  more  repose  at  home 
than  it  had  already  enjoyed  abroad;  for  he  set  about  sur- 
rounding the  city  with  a  stone  wall,  on  the  side  where  he  had 
not  yet  fortified  it,  the  beginning  of  which  work  had  been 
interrupted  by  the  Sabine  war;  and  the  lower  parts  of  the 
city  round  the  forum,  and  the  other  valleys  lying  between  the 
hills,  because  they  could  not  easily  carry  off  the  water  from 
the  flat  grounds,  he  drained  by  means  of  sewers  conducted 
down  a  slope  into  the  Tiber.  He  also  levelled  an  open  space 
for  a  temple  of  Jupiter  in  the  Capitol,  which  he  had  vowed 
to  him  in  the  Sabine  war:  as  his  mind  even  then  forecast  the 
future  grandeur  of  the  place,  he  took  possession  of  the  site 
by  laying  its  foundations. 

'  At  that  time  a  prodigy  was  seen  in  the  palace,  which  was 
marvellous  in  its  result.  It  is  related  that  the  head  of  a  boy, 
called  Servius  Tullius,  as  he  lay  asleep,  blazed  with  fire  in  the 
presence  of  several  spectators :  that,  on  a  great  noise  being 
made  at  so  miraculous  a  phenomenon,  the  king  and  queen 
were  awakened :  and  when  one  of  the  servants  was  bringing 
water  to  put  out  the  flame,  that  he  was  kept  back  by  the  queen, 
and  after  the  disturbance  was  quieted,  that  she  forbade  the  boy 
to  be  disturbed  till  he  should  awaken  of  his  own  accord. 
As  soon  as  he  awoke  the  flame  disappeared.  Then  Tanaquil, 


B.  C.  616-578]   THE   STORY   OF  SERVIUS  TULLIUS  47 

taking  her  husband  apart,  said :  "  Do  you  see  this  boy  whom 
we  are  bringing  up  in  so  mean  a  style  ?  Be  assured  that  some 
time  hereafter  he  will  be  a  light  to  us  in  our  adversity,  and  a 
protector  of  our  royal  house  when  in  distress.  Henceforth  let 
us,  with  all  the  tenderness  we  can,  train  up  this  youth,  who  is 
destined  to  prove  the  source  of  great  glory  to  our  family  and 
state."  From  this  time  the  boy  began  to  be  treated  as  their 
own  son,  and  instructed  in  those  accomplishments  by  which 
men's  minds  are  roused  to  maintain  high  rank  with  dignity. 
This  was  easily  done,  as  it  was  agreeable  to  the  gods.  The 
young  man  turned  out  to  be  of  truly  royal  disposition:  nor 
when  a  son-in-law  was  being  sought  for  Tarquin,  could  any 
of  the  Roman  youth  be  compared  to  him  in  any  accomplish- 
ment :  therefore  the  king  betrothed  his  own  daughter  to  him. 
The  fact  of  this  high  honour  being  conferred  upon  him,  from 
whatever  cause,  forbids  us  to  believe  that  he  was  the  son  of  a 
slave,  or  that  he  had  himself  been  a  slave  when  young.  I  am 
rather  of  the  opinion  of  those  who  say  that,  on  the  taking  of 
Corniculum,  the  wife  of  Servius  Tullius,  who  had  been  the 
leading  man  in  that  city,  being  pregnant  when  her  husband 
was  slain,  since  she  was  known  among  the  other  female  pris- 
oners, and,  in  consequence  of  her  distinguished  rank,  exempt- 
ed from  servitude  by  the  Roman  queen,  was  delivered  of  a 
child  at  Rome,  in  the  house  of  Tarquinius  Priscus :  upon  this, 
that  both  the  intimacy  between  the  women  was  increased  by 
so  great  a  kindness,  and  that  the  boy,  as  he  had  been  brought 
up  in  the  family  from  his  infancy,  was  beloved  and  respected ; 
that  his  mother's  lot,  in  having  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy  after  the  capture  of  her  native  city,  caused  him  to  be 
thought  to  be  the  son  of  a  slave. 

About  the  thirty-eighth  year  of  Tarquin's  reign,  Servius 
Tullius  enjoyed  the  highest  esteem,  not  only  of  the  king,  but 
also  of  the  senate  and  people.  At  this  time  the  two  sons  of 
Ancus,  though  they  had  before  that  always  considered  it  the 
highest  indignity  that  they  had  been  deprived  of  their  father's 
crown  by  the  treachery  of  their  guardian,  that  a  stranger 
should  be  King  of  Rome,  who  not  only  did  not  belong  to  a 
neighbouring,  but  not  even  to  an  Italian  family,  now  felt  their 
indignation  roused  to  a  still  higher  pitch  at  the  idea  that  the 
crown  would  not  only  not  revert  to  them  after  Tarquin,  but 
would  descend  even  lower  to  slaves,  so  that  in  the  same  state, 
about  the  hundredth  year  after  Romulus,  descended  from  a 
deity,  and  a  deity  himself,  had  occupied  the  throne  as  long  as 
he  lived,  Servius,  one  born  of  a  slave,  would  possess  it :  that  it 
would  be  the  common  disgrace  both  of  the  Roman  name,  and 


48  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.616-578 

more  especially  of  their  family,  if,  while  there  was  male  issue 
of  King  Ancus  still  living,  the  sovereignty  of  Rome  should  be 
accessible  not  only  to  strangers,  but  even  to  slaves.  They  de- 
termined therefore  to  prevent  that  disgrace  by  the  sword.  But 
since  resentment  for  the  injury  done  to  them  incensed  them 
more  against  Tarquin  himself,  than  against  Servius,  and  the 
consideration  that  a  king  was  likely  to  prove  a  more  severe 
avenger  of  the  murder,  if  he  should  survive,  than  a  private  per- 
son; and  moreover,  even  if  Servius  were  put  to  death,  it 
seemed  likely  that  he  would  adopt  as  his  successor  on  the 
throne  whomsoever  else  he  might  have  selected  as  his  son-in- 
law.  For  these  reasons  the  plot  was  laid  against  the  king 
himself.  Two  of  the  most  brutal  of  the  shepherds,  chosen  for 
the  deed,  each  carrying  with  him  the  iron  tools  of  husband- 
men to  the  use  of  which  he  had  been  accustomed,  by  creating 
as  great  a  disturbance  as  they  could  in  the  porch  of  the  palace, 
under  pretence  of  a  quarrel,  attracted  the  attention  of  all  the 
king's  attendants  to  themselves ;  then,  when  both  appealed 
to  the  king,  and  their  clamour  had  reached  even  the  interior 
of  the  palace,  they  were  summoned  and  proceeded  before 
him.  At  first  both  shouted  aloud,  and  vied  in  clamouring 
against  each  other,  until,  being  restrained  by  the  lictor,  and 
commanded  to  speak  in  turns,  they  at  length  ceased  railing: 
as  agreed  upon,  one  began  to  state  his  case.  While  the  king's 
attention,  eagerly  directed  toward  the  speaker,  was  diverted 
from  the  second  shepherd,  the  latter,  raising  up  his  axe, 
brought  it  down  upon  the  king's  head,  and,  leaving  the  weapon 
in  the  wound,  both  rushed  out  of  the  palace. 

When  those  around  had  raised  up  Tarquin  in  a  dying  state, 
the  lictors  seized  the  shepherds,  who  were  endeavouring  to 
escape.  Upon  this  an  uproar  ensued  and  a  concourse  of  peo- 
ple assembled,  wondering  what  was  the  matter.  Tanaquil, 
amid  the  tumult,  ordered  the  palace  to  be  shut,  and  thrust 
out  all  spectators :  at  the  same  time  she  carefully  prepared 
everything  necessary  for  dressing  the  wound,  as  if  a  hope  still 
remained:  at  the  same  time,  she  provided  other  means  of 
safety,  in  case  her  hopes  should  prove  false.  Having  hastily 
summoned  Servius,  after  she  had  shown  him  her  husband 
almost  at  his  last  gasp,  holding  his  right  hand,  she  entreated 
him  not  to  suffer  the  death  of  his  father-in-law  to  pass  un- 
avenged, nor  to  allow  his  mother-in-law  to  be  an  object  of 
scorn  to  their  enemies.  "  Servius,"  said  she,  "if  you  are  a  man, 
the  kingdom  belongs  to  you,  not  to  those,  who,  by  the  hands 
of  others,  have  perpetrated  a  most  shameful  deed.  Rouse 
yourself,  and  follow  the  guidance  of  the  gods,  who  portended 


B.  C.  578-534]  TARQUIN   IS  MURDERED  49 

that  this  head  of  yours  would  be  illustrious  by  formerly  shed- 
ding a  divine  blaze  around  it.  Now  let  that  celestial  flame 
arouse  you.  Now  awake  in  earnest.  We,  too,  though  for- 
eigners, have  reigned.  Consider  who  you  are,  not  whence  you 
are  sprung.  If  your  own  plans  are  rendered  useless  by  rea- 
son of  the  suddenness  of  this  event,  then  follow  mine."  When 
the  uproar  and  violence  of  the  multitude  could  scarcely  be  en- 
dured, Tanaquil  addressed  the  populace  from  the  upper  part 
of  the  palace 1  through  the  windows  facing  the  New  Street  (for 
the  royal  residence  was  near  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Stator). 
She  bade  them  be  of  good  courage ;  that  the  king  was  merely 
stunned  by  the  suddenness  of  the  blow ;  that  the  weapon  had 
not  sunk  deep  into  his  body ;  that  he  had  already  come  to  his 
senses  again ;  that  the  blood  had  been  wiped  off  and  the 
wound  examined;  that  all  the  symptoms  were  favourable; 
that  she.  was  confident  they  would  see  him  in  person  very 
soon ;  that,  in  the  meantime,  he  commanded  the  people  to 
obey  the  orders  of  Servius  Tullius ;  that  the  latter  would  ad- 
minister justice,  and  perform  all  the  other  functions  of  the 
king.  Servius  came  forth  wearing  the  trabea  2  and  attended 
by  lictors,  and  seating  himself  on  the  king's  throne,  decided 
some  cases,  and  with  respect  to  others  pretended  that  he  would 
consult  the  king.  Therefore,  though  Tarquin  had  now  ex- 
pired, his  death  was  concealed  for  several  days,  and  Servius, 
under  pretence  of  discharging  the  functions  of  another, 
strengthened  his  own  influence.  Then  at  length  the  fact  of 
his  death  was  made  public,  lamentations  being  raised  in  the 
palace.  Servius,  supported  by  a  strong  body-guard,  took  pos- 
session of  the  kingdom  by  the  consent  of  the  senate,  being 
the  first  who  did  so  without  the  order  of  the  people.  The 
children  of  Ancus,  the  instruments  of  their  villainy  having 
been  by  this  time  caught,  as  soon  as  it  was  announced  that  the 
king  still  lived,  and  that  the  power  of  Servius  was  so  great, 
had  already  gone  into  exile  to  Suessa  Pometia. 

And  now  Servius  began  to  strengthen  his  power,  not  more 
by  public  than  by  private  measures ;  and,  that  the  children  of 
Tarquin  might  not  entertain  the  same  feelings  toward  himself 
as  the  children  of  Ancus  had  entertained  toward  Tarquin,  he 
united  his  two  daughters  in  marriage  to  the  young  princes,  the 

1  This  part  of  the  Via  Nova  probably  corresponded  pretty  closely  with 
the  present  Via  S.  Teodoro,  and  Tarquin's  house  is  supposed  to  have  stood 
not  far  from  the  church  of  Sta.  Anastasia. — D.  O. 

*  A  white  toga  with  horizontal  purple  stripes.     This  was  originally  the 
royal  robe.     Later  it  became  the  ceremonial  dress  of  the  equestrian  order. 
The  Salii,  priests  of  Mars  Gradivus,  also  wore  it. — D.  O, 
4 


50  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  578-534 

Tarquinii,  Lucius  and  Arruns.  He  did  not,  however,  break 
through  the  inevitable  decrees  of  fate  by  human  counsels,  so 
as  to  prevent  jealousy  of  the  sovereign  power  creating  general 
animosity  and  treachery  even  among  the  members  of  his  own 
family.  Very  opportunely  for  the  immediate  preservation 
of  tranquility,  a  war  was  undertaken  against  the  Veientes  (for 
the  truce  had  now  expired)  and  the  other  Etruscans.  In  that 
war,  both  the  valour  and  good  fortune  of  Tullius  were  con- 
spicuous, and  he  returned  to  Rome,  after  routing  a  large  army 
of  the  enemy,  undisputed  king,  whether  he  tested  the  dis- 
positions of  the  fathers  or  the  people.  He  then  set  about  a 
work  of  peace  of  the  utmost  importance :  that,  as  Numa  had 
been  the  author  of  religious  institutions,  so  posterity  might 
celebrate  Servius  as  the  founder  of  all  distinction  in  the  state, 
and  of  the  several  orders  by  which  any  difference  is  perceptible 
between  the  degrees  of  rank  and  fortune.  For  he  instituted 
the  census,1  a  most  salutary  measure  for  an  empire  destined 
to  become  so  great,  according  to  which  the  services  of  war  and 
peace  were  to  be  performed,  not  by  every  man,  as  formerly, 
but  in  proportion  to  his  amount  of  property.  Then  he  divided 
the  classes  and  centuries  according  to  the  census,  and  intro- 
duced the  following  arrangement,  eminently  adapted  either 
for  peace  or  war. 

Of  those  who  possessed  property  to  the  value  of  a  hundred 
thousand  asses 2  and  upward,  he  formed  eighty  centuries, 
forty  of  seniors3  and  forty  of  juniors.4  All  these  were  called  the 
first  class,  the  seniors  to  be  in  readiness  to  guard  the  city,  the 
juniors  to  carry  on  war  abroad.  The  arms  they  were  ordered 
to  wear  consisted  of  a  helmet,  a  round  shield,  greaves,  and  a 
coat  of  mail,  all  of  brass;  these  were  for  the  defence  of  the 
body:  their  weapons  of  offence  were  a  spear  and  a  sword. 
To  this  class  were  added  two  centuries  of  mechanics,  who  were 
to  serve  without  arms :  the  duty  imposed  upon  them  was  that 
of  making  military  engines  in  time  of  war.  The  second  class 
included  all  those  whose  property  varied  between  seventy-five 
and  a  hundred  thousand  asses,  and  of  these,  seniors  and  jun- 

J  This  was  a  quinquennial  registering  of  every  man's  age,  family,  pro- 
fession, property,  and  residence,  by  which  the  amount  of  his  taxes  was 
regulated.  Formerly  each  full  citizen  contributed  an  equal  amount.  Ser- 
vius introduced  a  regulation  of  the  taxes  according  to  property  qualifica- 
tions, and  clients  and  plebeians  alike  had  to  pay  their  contribution,  if  they 
possessed  the  requisite  amount  of  property. 

*  Or,  "pounds  weight  of  bronze,"  originally  reckoned  by  the  posses- 
sion of  a  certain  number  of  jugera  (20  jugera  being  equal  to  5,000  asses). 

*  Between  the  ages  of  forty-six  and  sixty. — D.  O. 

4  Between  the  ages  of  seventeen  and  forty-six. — D.  O. 


B.C.  578-534]    ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  CENSUS  51 

iors,  twenty  centuries  were  enrolled.  The  arms  they  were 
ordered  to  wear  consisted  of  a  buckler  instead  of  a  shield,  and, 
except  a  coat  of  mail,  all  the  rest  were  the  same.  He  decided 
that  the  property  of  the  third  class  should  amount  to  fifty 
thousand  asses :  the  number  of  its  centuries  was  the  same,  and 
formed  with  the  same  distinction  of  age:  nor  was  there  any 
change  in  their  arms,  only  the  greaves  were  dispensed  with. 
In  the  fourth  class,  the  property  was  twenty-five  thousand 
asses:  the  same  number  of  centuries  was  formed,  their  arms 
were  changed,  nothing  being  given  them  but  a  spear  and  a 
short  javelin.  The  fifth  class  was  larger,  thirty  centuries  be- 
ing formed :  these  carried  slings  and  stones  for  throwing. 
Among  them  the  supernumeraries,  the  horn-blowers  and  the 
trumpeters,  were  distributed  into  three  centuries.  This  class 
was  rated  at  eleven  thousand  asses.  Property  lower  than  this 
embraced  the  rest  of  the  citizens,  and  of  them  one  century  was 
made  up  which  was  exempted  from  military  service.  Having 
thus  arranged  and  distributed  the  infantry,  he  enrolled  twelve 
centuries  of  knights  from  among  the  chief  men  of  the  state. 
While  Romulus  had  only  appointed  three  centuries,  Servius 
formed  six  others  under  the  same  names  as  they  had  received 
at  their  first  institution.  Ten  thousand  asses  were  given  them 
out  of  the  public  revenue,  to  buy  horses,  and  a  number  of 
widows  assigned  them,  who  were  to  contribute  two  thousand 
asses  yearly  for  the  support  of  the  horses.  All  these  burdens 
were  taken  off  the  poor  and  laid  on  the  rich.  Then  an  ad- 
ditional honour  was  conferred  upon  them:  for  the  suffrage 
was  not  now  granted  promiscuously  to  all — a  custom  estab- 
lished by  Romulus,  and  observed  by  his  successors — to  every 
man  with  the  same  privilege  and  the  same  right,  but  grada- 
tions were  established,  so  that  no  one  might  seem  excluded 
from  the  right  of  voting,  and  yet  the  whole  power  might  reside 
in  the  chief  men  of  the  state.  For  the  knights  were  first  called 
to  vote,  and  then  the  eighty  centuries  of  the  first  class,  consist- 
ing of  the  first  class  of  the  infantry:  if  there  occurred  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion  among  them,  which  was  seldom  the  case, 
the  practice  was  that  those  of  the  second  class  should  be  called, 
and  that  they  seldom  descended  so  low  as  to  come  down  to 
the  lowest  class.  Nor  need  we  be  surprised,  that  the  present 
order  of  things,  which  now  exists,  after  the  number  of  the 
tribes  was  increased  to  thirty-five,  their  number  being  now 
double  of  what  it  was,  should  not  agree  as  to  the  number  of 
centuries  of  juniors  and  seniors  with  the  collective  number  in- 
stituted by  Servius  Tullius.  For  the  city  being  divided  into 
four  districts,  according  to  the  regions  and  hills  which  were 


52  LlVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  578-534 

then  inhabited,  he  called  these  divisions  tribes,  as  I  think,  from 
the  tribute.  For  the  method  of  levying  taxes  ratably  accord- 
ing to  the  value  of  property  was  also  introduced  by  him :  nor 
had  these  tribes  any  relation  to  the  number  and  distribution  of 
the  centuries. 

The  census  being  now  completed,  which  he  had  brought 
to  a  speedy  close  by  the  terror  of  a  law  passed  in  reference  to 
those  who  were  not  rated,  under  threats  of  imprisonment  and 
death,  he  issued  a  proclamation  that  all  the  Roman  citizens, 
horse  and  foot,  should  attend  at  daybreak  in  the  Campus  Mar- 
tius,  each  in  his  century.  There  he  reviewed  the  whole  army 
drawn  up  in  centuries,  and  purified  it  by  the  rite  called  Suove- 
taurilia,1  and  that  was  called  the  closing  of  the  lustrum,  be- 
cause it  was  the  conclusion  of  the  census.  Eighty  thousand 
citizens  are  said  to  have  been  rated  in  that  survey.  Fabius 
Pictor,  the  most  ancient  of  our  historians,  adds  that  that  was 
the  number  of  those  who  were  capable  of  bearing  arms.  To 
accommodate  that  vast  population  the  city  also  seemed  to  re- 
quire enlargement.  He  took  in  two  hills,  the  Quirinal  and 
Viminal ;  then  next  he  enlarged  the  Esquiline,  and  took  up  his 
own  residence  there,  in  order  that  dignity  might  be  conferred 
upon  the  place.  He  surrounded  the  city  with  a  rampart,  a 
moat,  and  a  wall : 2  thus  he  enlarged  the  pomerium.  Those 
who  regard  only  the  etymology  of  the  word,  will  have  the  po- 
merium to  be  a  space  of  ground  behind  the  walls :  whereas  it 
is  rather  a  space  on  each  side  of  the  wall,  which  the  Etruscans, 
in  building  cities,  formerly  consecrated  by  augury,  within  cer- 
tain limits,  both  within  and  without,  in  the  direction  they  in- 
tended to  raise  the  wall :  so  that  the  houses  might  not  be 
erected  close  to  the  walls  on  the  inside,  as  people  commonly 
unite  them  now,  and  also  that  there  might  be  some  space 
without  left  free  from  human  occupation.  This  space,  which 
was  forbidden  to  be  tilled  or  inhabited,  the  Romans  called 
pomerium,  not  so  much  from  its  being  behind  the  wall,  as 
from  the  wall  being  behind  it :  and  in  enlarging  the  bounda- 
ries of  the  city,  these  consecrated  limits  were  always  extended, 
as  far  as  the  walls  were  intended  to  be  advanced. 

When  the  population  had  been  increased  in  consequence 
of  the  enlargement  of  the  city,  and  everything  had  been  or- 

1  A  ceremony  of  purification,  from  sus,  ovis,  and  taurus  :  the  three 
victims  were  led  three  times  round  the  army  and  sacrificed  to  Mars.  The 
ceremony  took  place  every  fifth  year. 

*  These  were  the  walls  of  Rome  down  to  about  271-276  A.  D.,  when  the 
Emperor  Aurelian  began  the  walls  that  now  inclose  the  city.  Remains  of 
the  Servian  wall  are  numerous  and  of  considerable  extent. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  578-534]  THE   TEMPLE   OF   DIANA  53 

ganized  at  home  to  meet  the  exigencies  both  of  peace  and  war, 
that  the  acquisition  of  power  might  not  always  depend  on 
mere  force  of  arms,  he  endeavoured  to  extend  his  empire  by 
policy,  and  at  the  same  time  to  add  some  ornament  to  the  city. 
The  Temple  of  Diana  at  Ephesus  was  even  then  in  high  re- 
nown; it  was  reported  that  it  had  been  built  by  all  the  states 
of  Asia  in  common.  When  Servius,  in  the  company  of  some 
Latin  nobles  with  whom  he  had  purposely  formed  ties  of 
hospitality  and  friendship,  both  in  public  and  private,  extolled 
in  high  terms  such  harmony  and  association  of  their  gods,  by 
frequently  harping  upon  the  same  subject,  he  at  length  pre- 
vailed so  far  that  the  Latin  states  agreed  to  build  a  temple  of 
Diana  at  Rome  *  in  conjunction  with  the  Roman  people.  This 
was  an  acknowledgment  that  the  headship  of  affairs,  concern- 
ing which  they  had  so  often  disputed  in  arms,  was  centred  in 
Rome.  An  accidental  opportunity  of  recovering  power  by  a 
scheme  of  his  own  seemed  to  present  itself  to  one  of  the  Sa- 
bines,  though  that  object  appears  to  have  been  left  out  of  con- 
sideration by  all  the  Latins,  in  consequence  of  the  matter  hav- 
ing been  so  often  attempted  unsuccessfully  by  arms.  A  cow  of 
surprising  size  and  beauty  is  said  to  have  been  calved  to  a  cer- 
tain Sabine,  the  head  of  a  family :  her  horns,  which  were  hung 
up  in  the  porch  of  the  Temple  of  Diana,  remained  for  many 
ages,  to  bear  record  to  this  marvel.  The  thing  was  regarded 
in  the  light  of  a  prodigy,  as  indeed  it  was,  and  the  soothsayers 
declared  that  sovereignty  should  reside  in  that  state,  a  citizen 
of  which  had  sacrificed  this  heifer  to  Diana.  This  prediction 
had  also  reached  the  ears  of  the  high  priest  of  the  Temple  of 
Diana.  The  Sabine,  as  soon  as  a  suitable  day  for  the  sacrifice 
seemed  to  have  arrived,  drove  the  cow  to  Rome,  led  her  to  the 
Temple  of  Diana,  and  set  her  before  the  altar.  There  the  Ro- 
man priest,  struck  with  the  size  of  the  victim,  so  celebrated  by 
fame,  mindful  of  the  response  of  the  soothsayers,  thus  ac- 
costed the  Sabine :  "  What  dost  thou  intend  to  do,  stranger  ?  " 
said  he ;  "  with  impure  hands  to  offer  sacrifice  to  Diana  ? 
Why  dost  not  thou  first  wash  thyself  in  running  water?  The 
Tiber  runs  past  at  the  bottom  of  the  valley."  The  stranger, 
seized  with  religious  awe,  since  he  was  desirous  of  everything 
being  done  in  due  form,  that  the  event  might  correspond  with 
the  prediction,  forthwith  went  down  to  the  Tiber.  In  the 
meantime  the  Roman  priest  sacrificed  the  cow  to  Diana, 
which  gave  great  satisfaction  to  the  king,  and  to  the  whole 
state. 

Servius,   though   he   had   now   acquired   an   indisputable 
1  On  the  summit  of  the  Aventine. — D.  O. 


54  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  578-534 

right  to  the  kingdom  by  long  possession,  yet,  as  he  heard  that 
expressions  were  sometimes  thrown  out  by  young  Tarquin, 
to  the  effect  that  he  occupied  the  throne  without  the  consent 
of  the  people,  having  first  secured  the  good-will  of  the  people 
by  dividing  among  them,  man  by  man,  the  land  taken  from 
their  enemies,  he  ventured  to  propose  the  question  to  them, 
whether  they  chose  and  ordered  that  he  should  be  king,  and 
was  declared  king  with  greater  unanimity  than  any  other  of 
his  predecessors.  And  yet  even  this  circumstance  did  not 
lessen  Tarquin's  hope  of  obtaining  the  throne ;  nay,  because  he 
had  observed  that  the  matter  of  the  distribution  of  land  to  the 
people  was  against  the  will  of  the  fathers,  he  thought  that  an 
opportunity  was  now  presented  to  him  of  arraigning  Servius 
before  the  fathers  with  greater  violence,  and  of  increasing  his 
own  influence  in  the  senate,  being  himself  a  hot-tempered 
youth,  while  his  wife  Tullia  roused  his  restless  temper  at  home. 
For  the  royal  house  of  the  Roman  kings  also  exhibited  an  ex- 
ample of  tragic  guilt,  so  that  through  their  disgust  of  kings, 
liberty  came  more  speedily,  and  the  rule  of  this  king,  which  was 
attained  through  crime,  was  the  last.  This  Lucius  Tar- 
quinius  (whether  he  was  the  son  or  grandson  of  Tarquinius 
Priscus  is  not  clear :  following  the  greater  number  of  authori- 
ties, however,  I  should  feel  inclined  to  pronounce  him  his  son) 
had  a  brother,  Arruns  Tarquinius,  a  youth  of  a  mild  disposi- 
tion. To  these  two,  as  has  been  already  stated,  the  two  Tul- 
lias,  daughters  of  the  king,  had  been  married,  they  also  them- 
selves being  of  widely  different  characters.  It  had  come  to 
pass,  through  the  good  fortune,  I  believe,  of  the  Roman  peo- 
ple, that  two  violent  dispositions  should  not  be  united  in  mar- 
riage, in  order  that  the  reign  of  Servius  might  last  longer,  and 
the  constitution  of  the  state  be  firmly  established.  The 
haughty  spirit  of  Tullia  was  chagrined,  that  there  was  no  pre- 
disposition in  her  husband,  either  to  ambition  or  daring.  Di- 
recting all  her  regard  to  the  other  Tarquinius,  him  she  ad- 
mired, him  she  declared  to  be  a  man,  and  sprung  from  royal 
blood ;  she  expressed  her  contempt  for  her  sister,  because, 
having  a  man  for  her  husband,  she  lacked  that  spirit  of  daring 
that  a  woman  ought  to  possess.  Similarity  of  disposition 
soon  drew  them  together,  as  wickedness  is  in  general  most 
congenial  to  wickedness;  but  the  beginning  of  the  general 
confusion  originated  with  the  woman.  Accustomed  to  the 
secret  conversations  of  the  husband  of  another,  there  was  no 
abusive  language  that  she  did  not  use  about  her  husband  to 
his  brother,  about  her  sister  to  her  sister's  husband,  asserting 
that  it  would  have  been  better  for  herself  to  remain  unmarried, 


B.  C.  578-534]    TULLIA   AND   LUCIUS  TARQUIN  55 

and  he  single,  than  that  she  should  be  united  with  one  who  was 
no  fit  mate  for  her,  so  that  her  life  had  to  be  passed  in  utter  in- 
activity by  reason  of  the  cowardice  of  another.  If  the  gods 
had  granted  her  the  husband  she  deserved,  she  would  soon 
have  seen  the  crown  in  possession  of  her  own  house,  which  she 
now  saw  in  possession  of  her  father.  She  soon  filled  the 
young  man  with  her  own  daring.  Lucius  Tarquinius  and  the 
younger  Tullia,  when  the  pair  had,  by  almost  simultaneous 
murders,  made  their  houses  vacant  for  new  nuptials,  were 
united  in  marriage,  Servius  rather  offering  no  opposition  than 
actually  approving. 

Then  indeed  the  old  age  of  Tullius  began  to  be  every  day 
more  endangered,  his  throne  more  imperilled.  For  now  the 
woman  from  one  crime  directed  her  thoughts  to  another,  and 
allowed  her  husband  no  rest  either  by  night  or  by  day,  that 
their  past  crimes  might  not  prove  unprofitable,  saying  that 
what  she  wanted  was  not  one  whose  wife  she  might  be  only  in 
name,  or  one  with  whom  she  might  live  an  inactive  life  of  slav- 
ery :  what  she  wanted  was  one  who  would  consider  himself 
worthy  of  the  throne,  who  would  remember  that  he  was  the  son 
of  Tarquinius  Priscus,  who  would  rather  have  a  kingdom  than 
hope  for  it.  "  If  you,  to  whom  I  consider  myself  married,  are 
such  a  one,  I  greet  you  both  as  husband  and  king ;  but  if  not, 
our  condition  has  been  changed  so  far  for  the  worse,  in  that  in 
you  crime  is  associated  with  cowardice.  Why  do  you  not  gird 
yourself  to  the  task?  You  need  not,  like  your  father,  from 
Corinth  or  Tarquinii,  struggle  for  a  kingdom  in  a  foreign  land. 
Your  household  and  country's  gods,  the  statue  of  your  father, 
the  royal  palace  and  the  kingly  throne  in  that  palace,  and  the 
Tarquinian  name,  elect  and  call  you  king.  Or  if  you  have  too 
little  spirit  for  this,  why  do  you  disappoint  the  state?  Why 
suffer  yourself  to  be  looked  up  to  as  a  prince?  Get  hence  to 
Tarquinii  or  Corinth.  Sink  back  again  to  your  original  stock, 
more  like  your  brother  than  your  father."  By  chiding  him 
with  these  and  other  words,  she  urged  on  the  young  man: 
nor  could  she  rest  herself,  at  the  thought  that  though  Tanaquil, 
a  woman  of  foreign  birth,  had  been  able  to  conceive  and  carry 
out  so  vast  a  project,  as  to  bestow  two  thrones  in  succession 
on  her  husband,  and  then  on  her  son-in-law,  she,  sprung  from 
royal  blood,  had  no  decisive  influence  in  bestowing  and  taking 
away  a  kingdom.  Tarquinius,  driven  on  by  the  blind  passion 
of  the  woman,  began  to  go  round  and  solicit  the  support  of  the 
patricians,  especially  those  of  the  younger  families:1  he  re- 
minded them  of  his  father's  kindness,  and  claimed  a  return 
1  Those  introduced  by  Tarquinius  Priscus,  as  related  above. — D.  O. 


56  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  578-534 

for  it,  enticed  the  young  men  by  presents,  increased  his  in- 
fluence everywhere  both  by  making  magnificent  promises  on 
his  own  part,  as  well  as  by  accusations  against  the  king.  At 
length,  as  soon  as  the  time  seemed  convenient  for  carrying  out 
his  purpose,  he  rushed  into  the  forum,  accompanied  by  a  band 
of  armed  men ;  then,  while  all  were  struck  with  dismay,  seat- 
ing himself  on  the  throne  before  the  senate-house,  he  ordered 
the  fathers  to  be  summoned  to  the  senate-house  by  the  crier  to 
attend  King  Tarquinius.  They  assembled  immediately,  some 
having  been  already  prepared  for  this,  others  through  fear, 
lest  it  should  prove  dangerous  to  them  not  to  have  come,  as- 
tounded at  such  a  strange  and  unheard-of  event,  and  consider- 
ing that  the  reign  of  Servius  was  now  at  an  end.  Then  Tar- 
quinius began  his  invectives  with  his  immediate  ances- 
tors: That  a  slave,  the  son  of  a  slave,  after  the  shameful  death 
of  his  father,  without  an  interregnum  being  adopted,  as  on 
former  occasions,  without  any  election  being  held,  without  the 
suffrages  of  the  people,  or  the  sanction  of  the  fathers,  he  had 
taken  possession  of  the  kingdom  by  the  gift  of  a  woman ;  that 
so  born,  so  created  king,  a  strong  supporter  of  the  most  de- 
graded class,  to  which  he  himself  belonged,  through  a  hatred 
of  the  high  station  of  others,  he  had  deprived  the  leading  men 
of  the  state  of  their  land  and  divided  it  among  the  very  lowest ; 
that  he  had  laid  all  the  burdens,  which  were  formerly  shared 
by  all  alike,  on  the  chief  members  of  the  community ;  that  he 
had  instituted  the  census,  in  order  that  the  fortune  of  the 
wealthier  citizens  might  be  conspicuous  in  order  to  excite 
envy,  and  ready  to  hand,  that  out  of  it  he  might  bestow  lar- 
gesses on  the  most  needy,  whenever  he  pleased. 

Servius,  aroused  by  the  alarming  announcement,  having 
come  upon  the  scene  during  this  harangue,  immediately 
shouted  with  a  loud  voice  from  the  porch  of  the  senate-house : 
"  What  means  this,  Tarquin  ?  by  what  audacity  hast  thou 
dared  to  summon  the  fathers,  while  I  am  still  alive,  or  to  sit 
on  my  throne  ?  "  When  the  other  haughtily  replied,  that  he, 
a  king's  son,  was  occupying  the  throne  of  his  father,  a  much 
fitter  successor  to  the  throne  than  a  slave ;  that  he  had  insulted 
his  masters  full  long  enough  by  shuffling  insolence,  a  shout 
arose  from  the  partisans  of  both,  the  people  rushed  into  the 
senate-house,  and  it  was  evident  that  whoever  came  off  victor 
would  gain  the  throne.  Then  Tarquin,  forced  by  actual  ne- 
cessity to  proceed  to  extremities,  having  a  decided  advantage 
both  in  years  and  strength,  seized  Servius  by  the  waist,  and 
having  carried  him  out  of  the  senate-house,  hurled  him  down 
the  steps  to  the  bottom.  He  then  returned  to  the  senate- 


TULLIA 
From  a  painting  by  Ernst  Hildebrand 


B.  C.  578-534]     MURDER   OF   SERVIUS   TULLIUS  57 

house  to  assemble  the  senate.  The  king's  officers  and  attend- 
ants took  to  flight.  The  king  himself,  almost  lifeless  (when  he 
was  returning  home  with  his  royal  retinue  frightened  to  death 
and  had  reached  the  top  of  the  Cyprian  Street),  was  slain 
by  those  who  had  been  sent  by  Tarquin,  and  had  overtaken 
him  in  his  flight.  As  the  act  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  rest 
of  her  atrocious  conduct,  it  is  believed  to  have  been  done  by 
Tullia's  advice.  Anyhow,  as  is  generally  admitted,  driving 
into  the  forum  in  her  chariot,  unabashed  by  the  crowd  of  men 
present,  she  called  her  husband  out  of  the  senate-house,  and 
was  the  first  to  greet  him,  king;  and  when,  being  bidden  by 
him  to  withdraw  from  such  a  tumult,  she  was  returning  home, 
and  had  reached  the  top  of  the  Cyprian  Street,  where  Diana's 
chapel  lately  stood,  as  she  was  turning  on  the  right  to  the 
Urian  Hill,  in  order  to  ride  up  to  the  Esquiline,  the  driver 
stopped  terrified,  and  drew  in  his  reins,  and  pointed  out  to 
his  mistress  the  body  of  the  murdered  Servius  lying  on  the 
ground.  On  this  occasion  a  revolting  and  inhuman  crime  is 
said  to  Have  been  committed,  and  the  place  bears  record  of 
it.  They  call  it  the  Wicked  Street,  where  Tullia,  frantic  and 
urged  on  by  the  avenging  furies  of  her  sister  and  husband,  is 
said  to  have  driven  her  chariot  over  her  father's  body,  and  to 
have  carried  a  portion  of  the  blood  of  her  murdered  father  on 
her  blood-stained  chariot,  herself  also  defiled  and  sprinkled 
with  it,  to  her  own  and  her  husband's  household  gods,  through 
whose  vengeance  results  corresponding  with  the  evil  be- 
ginning of  the  reign  were  soon  destined  to  follow.  Ser- 
vius Tullius  reigned  forty-four  years  in  such  a  manner  that  it 
was  no  easy  task  even  for  a  good  and  moderate  successor  to 
compete  with  him.  However,  this  also  has  proved  an  addi- 
tional source  of  renown  to  him,  that  together  with  him  perished 
all  just  and  legitimate  reigns.  This  same  authority,  so  mild 
and  so  moderate,  because  it  was  vested  in  one  man,  some  say 
that  he  nevertheless  had  intended  to  resign,  had  not  the  wick- 
edness of  his  family  interfered  with  him  as  he  was  forming 
plans  for  the  liberation  of  his  country. 

After  this  period  Lucius  Tarquinius  began  to  reign,  whose 
acts  procured  him  the  surname  of  Proud,  for  he,  the  son-in- 
law,  refused  his  father-in-law  burial,  alleging  that  even  Rom- 
ulus was  not  buried  after  death.  He  put  to  death  the  prin- 
cipal senators,  whom  he  suspected  of  having  favoured  the 
cause  of  Servius.  Then,  conscious  that  the  precedent  of  ob- 
taining the  crown  by  evil  means  might  be  borrowed  from  him 
and  employed  against  himself,  he  surrounded  his  person  with 
a  body-guard  of  armed  men,  for  he  had  no  claim  to  the  king- 


58  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  578-534 

dom  except  force,  as  being  one  who  reigned  without  either  the 
order  of  the  people  or  the  sanction  of  the  senate.  To  this  was 
added  the  fact  that,  as  he  reposed  no  hope  in  the  affection 
of  his  citizens,  he  had  to  secure  his  kingdom  by  terror;  and 
in  order  to  inspire  a  greater  number  with  this,  he  carried  out 
the  investigation  of  capital  cases  solely  by  himself  without  as- 
sessors, and  under  that  pretext  had  it  in  his  power  to  put  to 
death,  banish,  or  fine,  not  only  those  who  were  suspected  or 
hated,  but  those  also  from  whom  he  could  expect  to  gain 
nothing  else  but  plunder.  The  number  of  the  fathers  more 
particularly  being  in  this  manner  diminished,  he  determined  to 
elect  none  into  the  senate  in  their  place,  that  the  order  might 
become  more  contemptible  owing  to  this  very  reduction  in 
numbers,  and  that  it  might  feel  the  less  resentment  at  no  busi- 
ness being  transacted  by  it.  For  he  was  the  first  of  the  kings 
who  violated  the  custom  derived  from  his  predecessors  of 
consulting  the  senate  on  all  matters,  and  administered  the 
business  of  the  state  by  taking  counsel  with  his  friends  alone. 
War,  peace,  treaties,  alliances,  all  these  he  contracted  and  dis- 
solved with  whomsoever  he  pleased,  without  the  sanction  of 
the  people  and  senate,  entirely  on  his  own  responsibility.  The 
nation  of  the  Latins  he  was  particularly  anxious  to  attach  to 
him,  so  that  by  foreign  influence  also  he  might  be  more  secure 
among  his  own  subjects;  and  he  contracted  ties  not  only  of 
hospitality  but  also  of  marriage  with  their  leading  men.  On 
Octavius  Mamilius  of  Tusculum,  who  was  by  far  the 
most  eminent  of  those  who  bore  the  Latin  name,  being  de- 
scended, if  we  believe  tradition,  from  Ulysses  and  the  god- 
dess Circe,  he  bestowed  his  daughter  in  marriage,  and  by  this 
match  attached  to  himself  many  of  his  kinsmen  and  friends. 

The  influence  of  Tarquin  among  the  chief  men  of  the 
Latins  being  now  considerable,  he  issued  an  order  that  they 
should  assemble  on  a  certain  day  at  the  grove  of  Ferentina,1 
saying  that  there  were  matters  of  common  interest  about 
which  he  wished  to  confer  with  them.  They  assembled  in 
great  numbers  at  daybreak.  Tarquinius  himself  kept  the  day 
indeed,  but  did  not  arrive  until  shortly  before  sunset.  Many 
matters  were  there  discussed  in  the  meeting  throughout  the 
day  in  various  conversations.  Turnus  Herdonius  of  Aricia 
inveighed  violently  against  the  absent  Tarquin,  saying  that 
it  was  no  wonder  the  surname  of  Proud  was  given  him  at 
Rome;  for  so  they  now  called  him  secretly  and  in  whispers, 
but  still  generally.  Could  anything  show  more  haughtiness 

1  At  the  foot  of  the  Alban  Hill.     The  general  councils  of  the  Latins 
were  held  here  up  to  the  time  of  their  final  subjugation. 


B.  C.  534-SioJ          THE   REIGN  OF  TARQUIN  59 

than  this  insolent  mockery  of  the  entire  Latin  nation?  After 
their  chiefs  had  been  summoned  so  great  a  distance  from 
home,  he  who  had  proclaimed  the  meeting  did  not  attend ;  as- 
suredly their  patience  was  being  tried,  in  order  that,  if  they 
submitted  to  the  yoke,  he  might  crush  them  when  at  his 
mercy.  For  who  could  fail  to  see  that  he  was  aiming  at  sov- 
ereignty over  the  Latins  ?  This  sovereignty,  if  his  own  coun- 
trymen had  done  well  in  having  intrusted  it  to  him,  or  if  it  had 
been  intrusted  and  not  seized  on  by  murder,  the  Latins  also 
ought  to  intrust  to  him  (and  yet  not  even  so,  inasmuch  as  he 
was  a  foreigner).  But  if  his  own  subjects  were  dissatisfied  with 
him  (seeing  that  they  were  butchered  one  after  another,  driven 
into  exile,  and  deprived  of  their  property),  what  better  pros- 
pects were  held  out  to  the  Latins  ?  If  they  listened  to  him,  they 
would  depart  thence,  each  to  his  own  home,  and  take  no  more 
notice  of  the  day  of  meeting  than  he  who  had  proclaimed  it. 
When  this  man,  mutinous  and  full  of  daring,  and  one  who  had 
obtained  influence  at  home  by  such  methods,  was  pressing 
these  and  other  observations  to  the  same  effect,  Tarquin  ap- 
peared on  the  scene.  This  put  an  end  to  his  harangue.  All 
turned  away  from  him  to  salute  Tarquin,  who,  on  silence 
being  proclaimed,  being  advised  by  those  next  him  to  make 
some  excuse  for  having  come  so  late,  said  that  he  had  been 
chosen  arbitrator  between  a  father  and  a  son:  that,  from  his 
anxiety  to  reconcile  them,  he  had  delayed :  and,  because  that 
duty  had  taken  up  that  day,  that  on  the  morrow  he  would  carry 
out  what  he  had  determined.  They  say  that  he  did  not  make 
even  that  observation  unrebuked  by  Turnus,  who  declared 
that  no  controversy  could  be  more  quickly  decided  than  one 
between  father  and  son,  and  that  it  could  be  settled  in  a  few 
words — unless  the  son  submitted  to  the  father,  he  would  be 
punished. 

The  Arician  withdrew  from  the  meeting,  uttering  these 
reproaches  against  the  Roman  king.  Tarquin,  feeling  the 
matter  much  more  sorely  than  he  seemed  to,  immediately  set 
about  planning  the  death  of  Turnus,  in  order  to  inspire  the 
Latins  with  the  same  terror  as  that  with  which  he  had  crushed 
the  spirits  of  his  own  subjects  at  home :  and  because  he  could 
not  be  put  to  death  openly,  by  virtue  of  his  authority,  he  ac- 
complished the  ruin  of  this  innocent  man  by  bringing  a  false 
charge  against  him.  By  means  of  some  Aricians  of  the  op- 
posite party,  he  bribed  a  servant  of  Turnus  with  gold,  to  allow 
a  great  number  of  swords  to  be  secretly  brought  into  his  lodg- 
ing. When  these  preparations  had  been  completed  in  the 
course  of  a  single  night,  Tarquin,  having  summoned  the  chiefs 


60  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  534-510 

of  the  Latins  to  him  a  little  before  day,  as  if  alarmed  by  some 
strange  occurrence,  said  that  his  delay  of  yesterday,  which  had 
been  caused  as  it  were  by  some  providential  care  of  the  gods, 
had  been  the  means  of  preservation  to  himself  and  to  them ; 
that  he  had  been  told  that  destruction  was  being  plotted  by 
Turnus  for  him  and  the  chiefs  of  the  Latin  peoples,  that  he 
alone  might  obtain  the  government  of  the  Latins.  That  he 
would  have  attacked  them  yesterday  at  the  meeting;  that  the 
attempt  had  been  deferred,  because  the  person  who  summoned 
the  meeting  was  absent,  who  was  the  chief  object  of  his  attack. 
That  that  was  the  reason  of  the  abuse  heaped  upon  him  dur- 
ing his  absence,  because  he  had  disappointed  his  hopes  by  de- 
laying. That  he  had  no  doubt  that,  if  the  truth  were  told  him, 
he  would  come  attended  by  a  band  of  conspirators,  at  break  of 
day,  when  the  assembly  met,  ready  prepared  and  armed.  That 
it  was  reported  that  a  great  number  of  swords  had  been  con- 
veyed to  his  house.  Whether  that  was  true  or  not,  could  be 
known  immediately.  He  requested  them  to  accompany  him 
thence  to  the  house  of  Turnus.  Both  the  daring  temper  of 
Turnus,  and  his  harangue  of  the  previous  day,  and  the  delay  of 
Tarquin,  rendered  the  matter  suspicious,  because  it  seemed 
possible  that  the  murder  might  have  been  put  off  in  conse- 
quence of  the  latter.  They  started  with  minds  inclined  in- 
deed to  believe,  yet  determined  to  consider  everything  else 
false,  unless  the  swords  were  found.  When  they  arrived  there, 
Turnus  was  aroused  from  sleep,  and  surrounded  by  guards : 
the  slaves,  who,  from  affection  to  their  master,  were  preparing 
to  use  force,  being  secured,  and  the  swords,  which  had  been 
concealed,  drawn  out  from  all  corners  of  the  lodging,  then  in- 
deed there  seemed  no  doubt  about  the  matter:  Turnus  was 
loaded  with  chains,  and  forthwith  a  meeting  of  the  Latins  was 
summoned  amid  great  confusion.  There,  on  the  swords  be- 
ing exhibited  in  the  midst,  such  violent  hatred  arose  against 
him,  that,  without  being  allowed  a  defence,  he  was  put  to  death 
in  an  unusual  manner ;  he  was  thrown  into  the  basin  of  the 
spring  of  Ferentina,  a  hurdle  was  placed  over  him,  and  stones 
being  heaped  up  in  it,  he  was  drowned. 

Tarquin  then  recalled  the  Latins  to  the  meeting,  and 
having  applauded  them  for  having  inflicted  well-merited  pun- 
ishment on  Turnus,  as  one  convicted  of  murder,  by  his  at- 
tempt to  bring  about  a  change  of  government,  spoke  as 
follows :  That  he  could  indeed  proceed  by  a  long-established 
right;  because,  since  all  the  Latins  were  sprung  from  Alba, 
they  were  comprehended  in  that  treaty  by  which,  dating  from 
the  time  of  Tullus,  the  entire  Alban  nation,  with  its  colonies, 


B.  C.  534-510]       SUBJECTION   OF   THE   LATINS  6l 

had  passed  under  the  dominion  of  Rome.  However,  for  the 
sake  of  the  interest  of  all  parties,  he  thought  rather  that  that 
treaty  should  be  renewed,  and  that  the  Latins  should  rather 
share  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  prosperity  of  the  Roman  peo- 
ple, than  be  constantly  either  apprehending  or  suffering  the 
demolition  of  their  towns  and  the  devastation  of  their  lands, 
which  they  had  formerly  suffered  in  the  reign  of  Ancus,  and 
afterward  in  the  reign  of  his  own  father.  The  Latins  were 
easily  persuaded,  though  in  that  treaty  the  advantage  lay  on 
the  side  of  Rome :  however,  they  both  saw  that  the  chiefs  of 
the  Latin  nation  sided  with  and  supported  the  king,  and  Tur- 
nus  was  a  warning  example,  still  fresh  in  their  recollections, 
of  the  danger  that  threatened  each  individually,  if  he  should 
make  any  opposition.  Thus  the  treaty  was  renewed,  and  no- 
tice was  given  to  the  young  men  of  the  Latins  that,  according 
to  the  treaty,  they  should  attend  in  considerable  numbers  in 
arms,  on  a  certain  day,  at  the  grove  of  Ferentina.  And  when 
they  assembled  from  all  the  states  according  to  the  edict  of  the 
Roman  king,  in  order  that  they  should  have  neither  a  general 
of  their  own,  nor  a  separate  command,  nor  standards  of  their 
own,  he  formed  mixed  companies  of  Latins  and  Romans  so 
as  out  of  a  pair  of  companies  to  make  single  companies,  and 
out  of  single  companies  to  make  a  pair:  and  when  the  com- 
panies had  thus  been  doubled,  he  appointed  centurions  over 
them. 

Nor  was  Tarquin,  though  a  tyrannical  prince  in  time  of 
peace,  an  incompetent  general  in  war;  nay,  he  would  have 
equalled  his  predecessors  in  that  art,  had  not  his  degeneracy 
in  other  ways  likewise  detracted  from  his  merit  in  this  respect. 
He  first  began  the  war  against  the  Volsci,  which  was  to  last 
two  hundred  years  after  his  time,  and  took  Suessa  Pometia 
from  them  by  storm;  and  when  by  the  sale  of  the  spoils  he 
had  realized  forty  talents  of  silver,  he  conceived  the  idea  of 
building  a  temple  to  Jupiter  on  such  a  magnificent  scale  that 
it  should  be  worthy  of  the  king  of  gods  and  men,  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  and  of  the  dignity  of  the  place  itself :  for  the 
building  of  this  temple  he  set  apart  the  money  realized  by 
the  sale  of  the  spoils.  Soon  after  a  war  claimed  his  attention, 
which  proved  more  protracted  than  he  had  expected,  in  which, 
having  in  vain  attempted  to  storm  Gabii,1  a  city  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, when,  after  suffering  a  repulse  from  the  walls,  he 
was  deprived  also  of  all  hope  of  taking  it  by  siege,  he  assailed 

1  A  few  ruins  on  the  Via  Praenestina,  about  nine  miles  from  the  Porta 
Maggiore,  mark  the  site  of  Gabii.  They  are  on  the  bank  of  the  drained 
Lago  Castiglione,  whence  Macaulay's  "Gabii  of  the  Pool." — D.  O. 


62  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  534-510 

it  by  fraud  and  stratagem,  a  method  by  no  means  natural  to 
the  Romans.  For  when,  as  if  the  war  had  been  abandoned, 
he  pretended  to  be  busily  engaged  in  laying  the  foundations 
of  the  temple,  and  with  other  works  in  the  city,  Sextus,  the 
youngest  of  his  three  sons,  according  to  a  preconcerted  ar- 
rangement, fled  to  Gabii,  complaining  of  the  unbearable  cru- 
elty of  his  father  toward  himself:  that  his  tyranny  had  now 
shifted  from  others  against  his  own  family,  and  that  he  was 
also  uneasy  at  the  number  of  his  own  children,  and  intended 
to  bring  about  the  same  desolation  in  his  own  house  as  he 
had  done  in  the  senate,  in  order  that  he  might  leave  behind 
him  no  issue,  no  heir  to  his  kingdom.  That  for  his  own  part, 
as  he  had  escaped  from  the  midst  of  the  swords  and  weapons 
of  his  father,  he  was  persuaded  he  could  find  no  safety  any- 
where save  among  the  enemies  of  Lucius  Tarquinius:  for — 
let  them  make  no  mistake — the  war,  which  it  was  now  pre- 
tended had  been  abandoned,  still  threatened  them,  and  he 
would  attack  them  when  off  their  guard  on  a  favourable  op- 
portunity. But  if  there  were  no  refuge  for  suppliants  among 
them,  he  would  traverse  all  Latium,  and  would  apply  next  to 
the  Volscians,  yEquans,  and  Hernicans,  until  he  should  come 
to  people  who  knew  how  to  protect  children  from  the  im- 
pious and  cruel  persecutions  of  parents.  That  perhaps  he 
would  even  find  some  eagerness  to  take  up  arms  and  wage 
war  against  this  most  tyrannical  king  and  his  equally  savage 
subjects.  As  he  seemed  likely  to  go  further,  enraged  as  he 
was,  if  they  paid  him  no  regard,  he  was  kindly  received  by  the 
Gabians.  They  bade  him  not  be  surprised,  if  one  at  last  be- 
haved in  the  same  manner  toward  his  children  as  he  had  done 
toward  his  subjects  and  allies — that  he  would  ultimately  vent 
his  rage  on  himself,  if  other  objects  failed  him — that  his  own 
coming  was  very  acceptable  to  them,  and  they  believed  that  in 
a  short  time  it  would  come  to  pass  that  by  his  aid  the  war 
would  be  transferred  from  the  gates  of  Gabii  up  to  the  very 
walls  of  Rome. 

Upon  this,  he  was  admitted  into  their  public  councils,  in 
which,  while,  with  regard  to  other  matters,  he  declared  him- 
self willing  to  submit  to  the  judgment  of  the  elders  of  Gabii, 
who  were  better  acquainted  with  them,  yet  he  every  now  and 
again  advised  them  to  renew  the  war,  claiming  for  himself 
superior  knowledge  in  this,  on  the  ground  of  being  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  strength  of  both  nations,  and  also  because 
he  knew  that  the  king's  pride,  which  even  his  own  children 
had  been  unable  to  endure,  had  become  decidedly  hateful  to 
his  subjects.  As  he  thus  by  degrees  stirred  up  the  nobles  of  the 


B.  C.  534-510]  STRATAGEM  OF  SEXTUS  63 

Gabians  to  renew  the  war,  and  himself  accompanied  the  most 
active  of  their  youth  on  plundering  parties  and  expeditions, 
and  unreasonable  credit  was  increasingly  given  to  all  his 
words  and  actions,  framed  as  they  were  with  the  object  of  de- 
ceiving, he  was  at  last  chosen  general-in-chief  in  the  war.  In 
the  course  of  this  war  when — the  people  being  still  ignorant 
of  what  was  going  on — trifling  skirmishes  with  the  Romans 
took  place,  in  which  the  Gabians  generally  had  the  advantage, 
then  all  the  Gabians,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  were 
eager  to  believe  that  Sextus  Tarquinius  had  been  sent  to  them 
as  their  general,  by  the  favour  of  the  gods.  By  exposing  him- 
self equally  with  the  soldiers  to  fatigues  and  dangers,  and  by 
his  generosity  in  bestowing  the  plunder,  he  became  so  loved 
by  the  soldiers,  that  his  father  Tarquin  had  not  greater  power 
at  Rome  than  his  son  at  Gabii.  Accordingly,  when  he  saw 
he  had  sufficient  strength  collected  to  support  him  in  any 
undertaking,  he  sent  one  of  his  confidants  to  his  father  at 
Rome  to  inquire  what  he  wished  him  to  do,  seeing  the  gods 
had  granted  him  to  be  all-powerful  at  Gabii.  To  this  courier 
no  answer  by  word  of  mouth  was  given,  because,  I  suppose, 
he  appeared  of  questionable  fidelity.  The  king  went  into  a 
garden  of  the  palace,  as  if  in  deep  thought,  followed  by  his 
son's  messenger;  walking  there  for  some  time  without  utter- 
ing a  word,  he  is  said  to  have  struck  off  the  heads  of  the  tall- 
est poppies  with  his  staff.1  The  messenger,  wearied  with  ask- 
ing and  waiting  for  an  answer,  returned  to  Gabii  apparently 
without  having  accomplished  his  object,  and  told  what  he 
had  himself  said  and  seen,  adding  that  Tarquin,  either 
through  passion,  aversion  to  him,  or  his  innate  pride,  had  not 
uttered  a  single  word.  As  soon  as  it  was  clear  to  Sextus 
what  his  father  wished,  and  what  conduct  he  enjoined  by  those 
intimations  without  words,  he  put  to  death  the  most  eminent 
men  of  the  city,  some  by  accusing  them  before  the  people,  as 
well  as  others,  who  from  their  own  personal  unpopularity 
were  liable  to  attack.  Many  were  executed  publicly,  and 
some,  in  whose  case  impeachment  was  likely  to  prove  less 
plausible,  were  secretly  assassinated.  Some  who  wished  to 
go  into  voluntary  exile  were  allowed  to  do  so,  others  were 
banished,  and  their  estates,  as  well  as  the  estates  of  those 
who  were  put  to  death,  publicly  divided  in  their  absence.  Out 
of  these  largesses  and  plunder  were  distributed;  and  by  the 

1  This  message  without  words  is  the  same  as  that  which,  according  to 
Herodotus,  was  sent  by  Thrasybulus  of  Miletus  to  Periander  of  Corinth. 
The  trick  by  which  Sextus  gained  the  confidence  of  the  people  of  Gabii  is 
also  related  by  him  of  Zopyrus  and  Darius. 


64  LIVY'S   ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  534-510 

sweets  of  private  gain  the  sense  of  public  calamities  became 
extinguished,  till  the  state  of  Gabii,  destitute  of  counsel  and 
assistance,  surrendered  itself  without  a  struggle  into  the  power 
of  the  Roman  king. 

Tarquin,  having  thus  gained  possession  of  Gabii,  made 
peace  with  the  nation  of  the  y£qui,  and  renewed  the  treaty 
with  the  Etruscans.  He  next  turned  his  attention  to  the  af- 
fairs of  the  city.  The  chief  of  these  was  that  of  leaving  behind 
him  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  on  the  Tarpeian1  Mount,  as  a  monu- 
ment of  his  name  and  reign ;  to  remind  posterity  that  of  two 
Tarquinii,  both  kings,  the  father  had  vowed,  the  son  com- 
pleted it.  Further,  that  the  open  space,  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  other  forms  of  worship,  might  be  entirely  appropriated  to 
Jupiter  and  his  temple,  which  was  to  be  erected  upon  it,  he 
resolved  to  cancel  the  inauguration  of  the  small  temples  and 
chapels,  several  of  which  had  been  first  vowed  by  King  Tatius, 
in  the  crisis  of  the  battle  against  Romulus,  and  afterward 
consecrated  and  dedicated  by  him.  At  the  very  outset  of  the 
foundation  of  this  work  it  is  said  that  the  gods  exerted  their 
divinity  to  declare  the  future  greatness  of  so  mighty  an  em- 
pire; for,  though  the  birds  declared  for  the  unhallowing  of 
all  the  other  chapels,  they  did  not  declare  themselves  in  fa- 
vour of  it  in  the  case  of  that  of  Terminus.2  This  omen  and 
augury  were  taken  to  import  that  the  fact  of  Terminus  not 
changing  his  residence,  and  that  he  was  the  only  one  of  the 
gods  who  was  not  called  out  of  the  consecrated  bounds  de- 
voted to  his  worship,  was  a  presage  of  the  lasting  stability 
of  the  state  in  general.  This  being  accepted  as  an  omen  of 
its  lasting  character,  there  followed  another  prodigy  portend- 
ing the  greatness  of  the  empire.  It  was  reported  that  the  head 
of  a  man,  with  the  face  entire,  was  found  by  the  workmen 
when  digging  the  foundation  of  the  temple.  The  sight  of  this 
phenomenon  by  no  doubtful  indications  portended  that  this 
temple  should  be  the  seat  of  empire,  and  the  capital  of  the 
world;  and  so  declared  the  soothsayers,  both  those  who  were 
in  the  city,  and  those  whom  they  had  summoned  from  Etruria, 
to  consult  on  this  subject.  The  king's  mind  was  thereby  en- 
couraged to  greater  expense;  in  consequence  of  which  the 
spoils  of  Pometia,  which  had  been  destined  to  complete  the 

1  The  name  "  Tarpeian,"  as  given  from  the  Tarpeia,  whose  story  is  told 
above,  was  generally  confined  to  the  rock  or  precipice  from  which  traitors 
were  thrown.  Its  exact  location  on  the  Capitoline  Hill  does  not  seem 
positively  determined  ;  in  fact,  most  of  the  sites  on  this  hill  have  been 
subjects  of  considerable  dispute. — D.  O. 

*  The  god  of  boundaries.  His  action  seems  quite  in  keeping  with  his 
office.— D.  O. 


B.C.  534-510]     THE   DELPHIAN   ORACLE   CONSULTED         65 

work,  scarcely  sufficed  for  laying  the  foundation.  On  this  ac- 
count I  am  more  inclined  to  believe  Fabius  (not  to  mention 
his  being  the  more  ancient  authority),  that  there  were  only 
forty  talents,  than  Piso,  who  says  that  forty  thousand  pounds 
of  silver  by  weight  were  set  apart  for  that  purpose,  a  sum 
of  money  neither  to  be  expected  from  the  spoils  of  any  one 
city  in  those  times,  and  one  that  would  more  than  suffice  for 
the  foundations  of  any  building,  even  the  magnificent  build- 
ings of  the  present  day. 

Tarquin,  intent  upon  the  completion  of  the  temple,  having 
sent  for  workmen  from  all  parts  of  Etruria,  employed  on  it 
not  only  the  public  money,  but  also  workmen  from  the  peo- 
ple; and  when  this  labour,  in  itself  no  inconsiderable  one,  was 
added  to  their  military  service,  still  the  people  murmured  less 
at  building  the  temples  of  the  gods  with  their  own  hands,  than 
at  being  transferred,  as  they  afterward  were,  to  other  works, 
which,  while  less  dignified,  required  considerably  greater  toil; 
such  were  the  erection  of  benches  in  the  circus,  and  conduct- 
ing underground  the  principal  sewer,1  the  receptacle  of  all  the 
filth  of  the  city;  two  works  the  like  of  which  even  modern 
splendour  has  scarcely  been  able  to  produce.  After  the  people 
had  been  employed  in  these  works,  because  he  both  consid- 
ered that  such  a  number  of  inhabitants  was  a  burden  to  the 
city  where  there  was  no  employment  for  them,  and  further, 
was  anxious  that  the  frontiers  of  the  empire  should  be  more 
extensively  occupied  by  sending  colonists,  he  sent  colonists  to 
Signia  2  and  Circeii,3  to  serve  as  defensive  outposts  hereafter 
to  the  city  on  land  and  sea.  While  he  was  thus  employed  a 
frightful  prodigy  appeared  to  him.  A  serpent  gliding  out  of 
a  wooden  pillar,  after  causing  dismay  and  flight  in  the  palace, 
not  so  much  struck  the  king's  heart  with  sudden  terror,  as  it 
filled  him  with  anxious  solicitude.  Accordingly,  since  Etrus- 
can soothsayers  were  only  employed  for  public  prodigies,  ter- 
rified at  this  so  to  say  private  apparition,  he  determined  to 
send  to  the  oracle  of  Delphi,  the  most  celebrated  in  the  world ; 
and  not  venturing  to  intrust  the  responses  of  the  oracle  to 
any  other  person,  he  despatched  his  two  sons  to  Greece 
through  lands  unknown  at  that  time,  and  yet  more  unknown 
seas.  Titus  and  Arruns  were  the  two  who  set  out.  They  were 

1  The  Cloaca  Maxima,  upon  which  Rome  still  relies  for  much  of  her 
drainage,  is  more  generally  attributed  to  Tarquinius  Priscus. — D.  O. 

1  The  modern  Segni,  upward  of  thirty  miles  from  Rome,  on  the  Rome- 
Naples  line. — D.  O. 

•  On  the  coast,  near  Terracina.     The  Promontoria  Circeo  is  the  tradi- 
tional site  of  the  palace  and  grave  of  Circe,  whose  story  is  told  in  the 
Odyssey.— D.  O. 
5 


66  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  534-510 

accompanied  by  Lucius  Junius  Brutus,  the  son  of  Tarquinia, 
the  king's  sister,  a  youth  of  an  entirely  different  cast  of  mind 
from  that  of  which  he  had  assumed  the  disguise.  He,  having 
heard  that  the  chief  men  of  the  city,  among  them  his  own 
brother,  had  been  put  to  death  by  his  uncle,  resolved  to  leave 
nothing  in  regard  to  his  ability  that  might  be  dreaded  by  the 
king,  nor  anything  in  his  fortune  that  might  be  coveted,  and 
thus  to  be  secure  in  the  contempt  in  which  he  was  held,  seeing 
that  there  was  but  little  protection  in  justice.  Therefore, 
having  designedly  fashioned  himself  to  the  semblance  of  fool- 
ishness, and  allowing  himself  and  his  whole  estate  to  become 
the  prey  of  the  king,  he  did  not  refuse  to  take  even  the  sur- 
name of  Brutus,1  that,  under  the  cloak  of  this  surname,  the 
genius  that  was  to  be  the  future  liberator  of  the  Roman  people, 
lying  concealed,  might  bide  its  opportunity.  He,  in  reality 
being  brought  to  Delphi  by  the  Tarquinii  rather  as  an  object 
of  ridicule  than  as  a  companion,  is  said  to  have  borne  with 
him  as  an  offering  to  Apollo  a  golden  rod,  inclosed  in  a  staff 
of  cornel-wood  hollowed  out  for  the  purpose,  a  mystical  em- 
blem of  his  own  mind.  When  they  arrived  there,  and  had 
executed  their  father's  commission,  the  young  men's  minds 
were  seized  with  the  desire  of  inquiring  to  which  of  them  the 
sovereignty  of  Rome  should  fall.  They  say  that  the  reply 
was  uttered  from  the  inmost  recesses  of  the  cave,  "  Young 
men,  whichever  of  you  shall  first  kiss  his  mother  shall  enjoy 
the  sovereign  power  at  Rome."  The  Tarquinii  ordered  the 
matter  to  be  kept  secret  with  the  utmost  care,  that  Sextus,  who 
had  been  left  behind  at  Rome,  might  be  ignorant  of  the  re- 
sponse of  the  oracle,  and  have  no  share  in  the  kingdom;  they 
then  cast  lots  among  themselves,  to  decide  which  of  them 
should  first  kiss  his  mother,  after  they  had  returned  to  Rome. 
Brutus,  thinking  that  the  Pythian  response  had  another  mean- 
ing, as  if  he  had  stumbled  and  fallen,  touched  the  ground 
with  his  lips,  she  being,  forsooth,  the  common  mother  of  all 
mankind.  After  this  they  returned  to  Rome,  where  prepara- 
tions were  being  made  with  the  greatest  vigour  for  a  war 
against  the  Rutulians. 

The  Rutulians,  a  very  wealthy  nation,  considering  the 
country  and  age  in  which  they  lived,  were  at  that  time  in  pos- 
session of  Ardea.2  Their  wealth  was  itself  the  actual  occasion 
of  the  war:  for  the  Roman  king,  whose  resources  had  been 
drained  by  the  magnificence  of  his  public  works,  was  desirous 

1  Dullard.— D.  O. 

*  In  the  Pomptine  marshes,  about  twenty  miles  south  of  Rome  and  five 
from  the  coast. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  534-510]  LUCRETIA  67 

both  of  enriching  himself,  and  also  of  soothing  the  minds  of 
his  subjects  by  a  large  present  of  booty,  as  they,  independently 
of  the  other  instances  of  his  tyranny,  were  incensed  against 
his  government,  because  they  felt  indignant  that  they  had 
been  kept  so  long  employed  by  the  king  as  mechanics,  and 
in  labour  only  fit  for  slaves.  An  attempt  was  made,  to  see  if 
Ardea  could  be  taken  at  the  first  assault;  when  that  proved 
unsuccessful,  the  enemy  began  to  be  distressed  by  a  blockade, 
and  by  siege-works.  In  the  standing  camp,  as  usually  hap- 
pens when  a  war  is  tedious  rather  than  severe,  furloughs  were 
easily  obtained,  more  so  by  the  officers,  however,  than  the 
common  soldiers.  The  young  princes  also  sometimes  spent 
their  leisure  hours  in  feasting  and  mutual  entertainments. 
One  day  as  they  were  drinking  in  the  tent  of  Sextus  Tar- 
quinius,  where  Collatinus  Tarquinius,  the  son  of  Egerius, 
was  also  at  supper,  they  fell  to  talking  about  their  wives. 
Every  one  commended  his  own  extravagantly:  a  dispute 
thereupon  arising,  Collatinus  said  there  was  no  occasion  for 
words,  that  it  might  be  known  in  a  few  hours  how  far  his  wife 
Lucretia  excelled  all  the  rest.  "  If,  then,"  added  he,  "  we  have 
any  youthful  vigour,  why  should  we  not  mount  our  horses 
and  in  person  examine  the  behaviour  of  our  wives?  let  that 
be  the  surest  proof  to  every  one,  which  shall  meet  his  eyes 
on  the  unexpected  arrival  of  the  husband."  They  were  heated 
with  wine.  "  Come  on,  then,"  cried  all.  They  immediately 
galloped  to  Rome,  where  they  arrived  when  darkness  was 
beginning  to  fall.  From  thence  they  proceeded  to  Collatia,1 
where  they  found  Lucretia,  not  after  the  manner  of  the  king's 
daughters-in-law,  whom  they  had  seen  spending  their  time 
in  luxurious  banqueting  with  their  companions,  but,  although 
the  night  was  far  advanced,  employed  at  her  wool,  sitting  in 
the  middle  of  the  house  in  the  midst  of  her  maids  who  were 
working  around  her.  The  honour  of  the  contest  regarding 
the  women  rested  with  Lucretia.  Her  husband  on  his  arrival, 
and  the  Tarquinii,  were  kindly  received ;  the  husband,  proud 
of  his  victory,  gave  the  young  princes  a  polite  invitation. 
There  an  evil  desire  of  violating  Lucretia  by  force  seized  Sex- 
tus Tarquinius ;  both  her  beauty,  and  her  proved  chastity 
urged  him  on.  Then,  after  this  youthful  frolic  of  the  night, 
they  returned  to  the  camp. 

After  an  interval  of  a  few  days,  Sextus  Tarquinius,  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  Collatinus,  came  to  Collatia  with  one 
attendant  only:  there  he  was  made  welcome  by  them,  as  they 

1  Its  site,  about  nine  miles  from  Rome,  on  the  road  to  Tivoli,  is  now 
known  as  Lunghezza. — D.  O. 


68  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  534-510 

had  no  suspicion  of  his  design,  and,  having  been  conducted 
after  supper  into  the  guest  chamber,  burning  with  passion, 
when  all  around  seemed  sufficiently  secure,  and  all  fast  asleep, 
he  came  to  the  bedside  of  Lucretia,  as  she  lay  asleep,  with  a 
drawn  sword,  and  with  his  left  hand  pressing  down  the 
woman's  breast,  said:  "  Be  silent,  Lucretia;  I  am  Sextus  Tar- 
quinius.  I  have  a  sword  in  my  hand.  You  shall  die  if  you  utter 
a  word."  When  the  woman,  awaking  terrified  from  sleep, 
saw  there  was  no  help,  and  that  impending  death  was  nigh 
at  hand,  then  Tarquin  declared  his  passion,  entreated,  mixed 
threats  with  entreaties,  tried  all  means  to  influence  the  wom- 
an's mind.  When  he  saw  she  was  resolved,  and  uninfluenced 
even  by  the  fear  of  death,  to  the  fear  of  death  he  added  the 
fear  of  dishonour,  declaring  that  he  would  lay  a  murdered 
slave  naked  by  her  side  when  dead,  so  that  it  should  be  said 
that  she  had  been  slain  in  base  adultery.  When  by  the  terror 
of  this  disgrace  his  lust  (as  it  were  victorious)  had  overcome 
her  inflexible  chastity,  and  Tarquin  had  departed,  exulting 
in  having  triumphed  over  a  woman's  honour  by  force,  Lu- 
cretia, in  melancholy  distress  at  so  dreadful  a  misfortune, 
despatched  one  and  the  same  messenger  both  to  her  father 
at  Rome,  and  to  her  husband  at  Ardea,  bidding  them  come 
each  with  a  trusty  friend;  that  they  must  do  so,  and  use  de- 
spatch, for  a  monstrous  deed  had  been  wrought.  Spurius 
Lucretius  came  accompanied  by  Publius  Valerius,  the  son  of 
Volesus,  Collatinus  with  Lucius  Junius  Brutus,  in  company 
with  whom,  as  he  was  returning  to  Rome,  he  happened  to 
be  met  by  his  wife's  messenger.  They  found  Lucretia  sitting 
in  her  chamber  in  sorrowful  dejection.  On  the  arrival  of 
her  friends  the  tears  burst  from  her  eyes;  and  on  her  hus- 
band inquiring,  whether  all  was  well,  "  By  no  means,"  she  re- 
plied, "  for  how  can  it  be  well  with  a  woman  who  has  lost  her 
honour?  The  traces  of  another  man  are  on  your  bed,  Col- 
latinus. But  the  body  only  has  been  violated,  the  mind  is 
guiltless ;  death  shall  be  my  witness.  But  give  me  your  right 
hands,  and  your  word  of  honour,  that  the  adulterer  shall  not 
come  off  unpunished.  It  is  Sextus  Tarquinius,  who,  an  enemy 
last  night  in  the  guise  of  a  guest,  has  borne  hence  by 
force  of  arms,  a  triumph  destructive  to  me,  and  one  that 
will  prove  so  to  himself  also,  if  you  be  men."  All  gave  their 
word  in  succession;  they  attempted  to  console  her,  grieved 
in  heart  as  she  was,  by  turning  the  guilt  of  the  act  from  her, 
constrained  as  she  had  been  by  force,  upon  the  perpetrator  of 
the  crime,  declaring  that  it  is  the  mind  sins,  not  the  body ;  and 
that  where  there  is  no  intention,  there  is  no  guilt.  "  It  is 


B.  c.  510]  FALL  OF  THE   TARQUltfS  69 

for  you  to  see,"  said  she,  "  what  is  due  to  him.  As  for  me, 
though  I  acquit  myself  of  guilt,  I  do  not  discharge  myself 
from  punishment;  nor  shall  any  woman  survive  her  dishonour 
by  pleading  the  example  of  Lucretia."  She  plunged  a  knife, 
which  she  kept  concealed  beneath  her  garment,  into  her  heart, 
and  falling  forward  on  the  wound,  dropped  down  expiring. 
Her  husband  and  father  shrieked  aloud. 

While  they  were  overwhelmed  with  grief,  Brutus  drew 
the  knife  out  of  the  wound,  and,  holding  it  up  before  him 
reeking  with  blood,  said :  "  By  this  blood,  most  pure  before 
the  outrage  of  a  prince,  I  swear,  and  I  call  you,  O  gods,  to 
witness  my  oath,  that  I  will  henceforth  pursue  Lucius  Tar- 
quinius  Superbus,  his  wicked  wife,  and  all  their  children,  with 
fire,  sword,  and  all  other  violent  means  in  my  power;  nor 
will  I  ever  suffer  them  or  any  other  to  reign  at  Rome."  Then 
he  gave  the  knife  to  Collatinus,  and  after  him  to  Lucretius 
and  Valerius,  who  were  amazed  at  such  an  extraordinary 
occurrence,  and  could  not  understand  the  newly  developed 
character  of  Brutus.  However,  they  all  took  the  oath  as  they 
were  directed,  and,  their  sorrow  being  completely  changed 
to  wrath,  followed  the  lead  of  Brutus,  who  from  that  time 
ceased  not  to  call  upon  them  to  abolish  the  regal  power. 
They  carried  forth  the  body  of  Lucretia  from  her  house,  and 
conveyed  it  to  the  forum,  where  they  caused  a  number  of 
persons  to  assemble,  as  generally  happens,  by  reason  of  the 
unheard-of  and  atrocious  nature  of  an  extraordinary  occur- 
rence. They  complained,  each  for  himself,  of  the  royal  vil- 
lainy and  violence.  Both  the  grief  of  the  father  affected  them, 
and  also  Brutus,  who  reproved  their  tears  and  unavailing 
complaints,  and  advised  them  to  take  up  arms,  as  became 
men  and  Romans,  against  those  who  dared  to  treat  them  like 
enemies.  All  the  most  spirited  youths  voluntarily  presented 
themselves  in  arms ;  the  rest  of  the  young  men  followed  also. 
From  thence,  after  an  adequate  garrison  had  been  left  at  the 
gates  at  Collatia,  and  sentinels  appointed,  to  prevent  any  one 
giving  intelligence  of  the  disturbance  to  the  royal  party,  the 
rest  set  out  for  Rome  in  arms  under  the  conduct  of  Brutus. 
When  they  arrived  there,  the  armed  multitude  caused  panic 
and  confusion  wherever  they  went.  Again,  when  they  saw 
the  principal  men  of  the  state  placing  themselves  at  their 
head,  they  thought  that,  whatever  it  might  be,  it  was  not  with- 
out good  reason.  Nor  did  the  heinousness  of  the  event  excite 
less  violent  emotions  at  Rome  than  it  had  done  at  Collatia: 
accordingly,  they  ran  from  all  parts  of  the  city  into  the  forum, 
and,  as  soon  as  they  came  thither,  the  public  crier  summoned 


70  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  510 

them  to  attend  the  tribune  of  the  celeres,1  with  which  office 
Brutus  happened  to  be  at  the  time  invested.  There  a  ha- 
rangue was  delivered  by  him,  by  no  means  of  the  style  and 
character  which  had  been  counterfeited  by  him  up  to  that 
day,  concerning  the  violence  and  lust  of  Sextus  Tarquinius, 
the  horrid  violation  of  Lucretia  and  her  lamentable  death,  the 
bereavement  of  Tricipitinus,2  in  whose  eyes  the  cause  of  his 
daughter's  death  was  more  shameful  and  deplorable  than  that 
death  itself.  To  this  was  added  the  haughty  insolence  of  the 
king  himself,  and  the  sufferings  and  toils  of  the  people,  buried 
in  the  earth  in  the  task  of  cleansing  ditches  and  sewers:  he 
declared  that  Romans,  the  conquerors  of  all  the  surrounding 
states,  instead  of  warriors  had  become  labourers  and  stone- 
cutters. The  unnatural  murder  of  King  Servius  Tullius  was 
recalled,  and  the  fact  of  his  daughter  having  driven  over  the 
body  of  her  father  in  her  impious  chariot,  and  the  gods  who 
avenge  parents  were  invoked  by  him.  By  stating  these  and, 
I  believe,  other  facts  still  more  shocking,  which,  though  by 
no  means  easy  to  be  detailed  by  writers,  the  then  heinous  state 
of  things  suggested,  he  so  worked  upon  the  already  incensed 
multitude,  that  they  deprived  the  king  of  his  authority,  and 
ordered  the  banishment  of  Lucius  Tarquinius  with  his  wife 
and  children.  He  himself,  having  selected  and  armed  some 
of  the  younger  men,  who  gave  in  their  names  as  volunteers, 
set  out  for  the  camp  at  Ardea  to  rouse  the  army  against  the 
king:  the  command  in  the  city  he  left  to  Lucretius,  who  had 
been  already  appointed  prefect  of  the  city  by  the  king.  Dur- 
ing this  tumult  Tullia  fled  from  her  house,  both  men  and 
women  cursing  her  wherever  she  went,  and  invoking  upon  her 
the  wrath  of  the  furies,  the  avengers  of  parents. 

News  of  these  transactions  having  reached  the  camp,  when 
the  king,  alarmed  at  this  sudden  revolution,  was  proceeding 
to  Rome  to  quell  the  disturbances,  Brutus — for  he  had  had 
notice  of  his  approach — turned  aside,  to  avoid  meeting  him; 
and  much  about  the  same  time  Brutus  and  Tarquinius  arrived 
by  different  routes,  the  one  at  Ardea,  the  other  at  Rome.  The 
gates  were  shut  against  Tarquin,  and  sentence  of  banishment 
declared  against  him ;  the  camp  welcomed  with  great  joy  the 
deliverer  of  the  city,  and  the  king's  sons  were  expelled.  Two 
of  them  followed  their  father,  and  went  into  exile  to  Caere,  a 
city  of  Etruria,  Sextus  Tarquinius,  who  had  gone  to  Gabii, 
as  if  to  his  own  kingdom,  was  slain  by  the  avengers  of  the 
old  feuds,  which  he  had  stirred  up  against  himself  by  his 

1  The  royal  body-guard.     See  the  story  of  Romulus  above. — D.  O. 
*  Spurius  Lucretius. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  510]  CONSULS  ELECTED  71 

rapines  and  murders.  Lucius  Tarquinius  Superbus  reigned 
twenty-five  years:  the  regal  form  of  government  lasted,  from 
the  building  of  the  city  to  its  deliverance,  two  hundred  and 
forty-four  years.  Two  consuls,  Lucius  Junius  Brutus  and 
Lucius  Tarquinius  Collatinus,  were  elected  by  the  prefect  of 
the  city  at  the  comitia  of  centuries,  according  to  the  com- 
mentaries of  Servius  Tullius. 


BOOK   II 

THE   FIRST   COMMONWEALTH 

THE  acts,  civil  and  military,  of  the  Roman  people,  hence- 
forth free,  their  annual  magistrates,  and  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  laws,  more  powerful  than  that  of  men,  I 
will  now  proceed  to  recount.  The  haughty  insolence 
of  the  last  king  had  caused  this  liberty  to  be  the  more  wel- 
come: for  the  former  kings  reigned  in  such  a  manner  that 
they  all  in  succession  may  be  deservedly  reckoned  founders  of 
those  parts  at  least  of  the  city,  which  they  independently  added 
as  new  dwelling-places  for  the  population,  which  had  been  in- 
creased by  themselves.  Nor  is  there  any  doubt  that  that  same 
Brutus,  who  gained  such  renown  from  the  expulsion  of  King 
Superbus,  would  have  acted  to  the  greatest  injury  of  the  public 
weal,  if,  through  the  desire  of  liberty  before  the  people  were  fit 
for  it,  he  had  wrested  the  kingdom  from  any  of  the  preceding 
kings.  For  what  would  have  been  the  consequence,  if  that 
rabble  of  shepherds  and  strangers,  runaways  from  their  own 
peoples,  had  found,  under  the  protection  of  an  inviolable  sanc- 
tuary, either  freedom,  or  at  least  impunity  for  former  offences, 
and,  freed  from  all  dread  of  regal  authority,  had  begun  to  be 
distracted  by  tribunician  storms,  and  to  engage  in  contests 
with  the  fathers  in  a  strange  city,  before  the  pledges  of  wives 
and  children,  and  affection  for  the  soil  itself,  to  which  people 
become  habituated  only  by  length  of  time,  had  united  their 
affections?  Their  condition,  not  yet  matured,  would  have 
been  destroyed  by  discord;  but  the  tranquillizing  moderation 
of  the  government  so  fostered  this  condition,  and  by  proper 
nourishment  brought  it  to  such  perfection,  that,  when  their 
strength  was  now  developed,  they  were  able  to  bring  forth  the 
wholesome  fruits  of  liberty.  The  first  beginnings  of  liberty, 
however,  one  may  date  from  this  period,  rather  because  the 
consular  authority  was  made  annual,  than  because  of  the  royal 
prerogative  was  in  any  way  curtailed.  The  first  consuls  kept 
all  the  privileges  and  outward  signs  of  authority,  care  only 

7* 


B.  C.  509]  THE   FIRST   CONSULSHIP  73 

being  taken  to  prevent  the  terror  appearing  doubled,  should 
both  have  the  fasces  at  the  same  time.  Brutus,  with  the  con- 
sent of  his  colleague,  was  first  attended  by  the  fasces,  he  who 
proved  himself  afterward  as  keen  in  protecting  liberty  as  he 
had  previously  shown  himself  in  asserting  it.  First  of  all  he 
bound  over  the  people,  jealous  of  their  newly-acquired  liberty, 
by  an  oath  that  they  would  suffer  no  one  to  be  king  in  Rome, 
for  fear  that  later  they  might  be  influenced  by  the  importuni- 
ties or  bribes  of  the  royal  house.  Next,  that  a  full  house  might 
give  additional  strength  to  the  senate,  he  filled  up  the  number 
of  senators,  which  had  been  diminished  by  the  assassinations 
of  Tarquinius,  to  the  full  number  of  three  hundred,  by  elect- 
ing the  principal  men  of  equestrian  rank  to  fill  their  places: 
from  this  is  said  to  have  been  derived  the  custom  of  summon- 
ing into  the  senate  both  the  patres  and  those  who  were  con- 
scripti.  They  called  those  who  were  elected,  conscripti,  en- 
rolled, that  is,  as  a  new  senate.  It  is  surprising  how  much 
that  contributed  to  the  harmony  of  the  state,  and  toward  unit- 
ing the  patricians  and  commons  in  friendship. 

Attention  was  then  paid  to  religious  matters,  and,  as  cer- 
tain public  functions  had  been  regularly  performed  by  the 
kings  in  person,  to  prevent  their  loss  being  felt  in  any  par- 
ticular, they  appointed  a  king  of  the  sacrifices.1  This  office 
they  made  subordinate  to  the  pontifex  maximus,  that  the 
holder  might  not,  if  high  office  were  added  to  the  title,  prove 
detrimental  to  liberty,  which  was  then  their  principal  care. 
And  I  do  not  know  but  that,  by  fencing  it  in  on  every  side  to 
excess,  even  in  the  most  trivial  matters,  they  exceeded  bounds. 
For,  though  there  was  nothing  else  that  gave  offence,  the 
name  of  one  of  the  consuls  was  an  object  of  dislike  to  the  state. 
They  declared  that  the  Tarquins  had  been  too  much  habitu- 
ated to  sovereignty;  that  it  had  originated  with  Priscus: 
that  Servius  Tullius  had  reigned  next ;  that  Tarquinius  Super- 
bus  had  not  even,  in  spite  of  the  interval  that  had  elapsed, 
given  up  all  thoughts  of  the  kingdom  as  being  the  property 
of  another,  which  it  really  was,  but  thought  to  regain  it  by 
crime  and  violence,  as  if  it  were  the  heirloom  of  his  family; 
that,  after  the  expulsion  of  Superbus,  the  government  was  in 
the  hands  of  Collatinus :  that  the  Tarquins  knew  not  how  to 
live  in  a  private  station;  that  the  name  pleased  them  not; 
that  it  was  dangerous  to  liberty.  Such  language,  used  at 

1  The  functions  of  the  old  priest-king  were  divided,  the  political  being 
assigned  to  the  consuls,  the  duty  of  sacrificing  to  the  newly-created  rex 
sacrificulus,  who  was  chosen  from  the  patricians  :  he  was,  nevertheless, 
subject  to  the  control  of  the  Pontifex  Maximus,  by  whom  he  was  chosen 
from  several  nominees  of  the  college  of  priests. 


74  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [3.  C.  509 

first  by  persons  quietly  sounding  the  dispositions  of  the  peo- 
ple, was  circulated  through  the  whole  state;  and  the  people, 
now  excited  by  suspicion,  were  summoned  by  Brutus  to  a 
meeting.  There  first  of  all  he  read  aloud  the  people's  oath : 
that  they  would  neither  suffer  any  one  to  be  king,  nor  allow 
any  one  to  live  at  Rome  from  whom  danger  to  liberty  might 
arise.  He  declared  that  this  ought  to  be  maintained  with  all 
their  might,  and  that  nothing,  that  had  any  reference  to  it, 
ought  to  be  treated  with  indifference:  that  he  said  this  with 
reluctance,  for  the  sake  of  the  individual;  and  that  he  would 
not  have  said  it,  did  not  his  affection  for  the  commonwealth 
predominate;  that  the  people  of  Rome  did  not  believe  that 
complete  liberty  had  been  recovered;  that  the  regal  family, 
the  regal  name,  was  not  only  in  the  state  but  also  in  power; 
that  that  was  a  stumbling-block,  was  a  hindrance  to  liberty. 
"  Do  you,  Lucius  Tarquinius,"  said  he,  "  of  your  own  free  will, 
remove  this  apprehension.  We  remember,  we  own  it,  you  ex- 
pelled the  royal  family ;  complete  your  services ;  take  hence 
the  royal  name;  your  property  your  fellow-citizens  shall  not 
only  hand  over  to  you,  by  my  advice,  but,  if  it  is  insufficient, 
they  will  liberally  supply  the  want.  Depart  in  a  spirit  of  friend- 
ship. Relieve  the  state  from  a  dread  which  may  be  only 
groundless.  So  firmly  are  men's  minds  persuaded  that  only 
with  the  Tarquinian  race  will  kingly  power  depart  hence." 
Amazement  at  so  extraordinary  and  sudden  an  occurrence  at 
first  impeded  the  consul's  utterance;  then,  as  he  was  com- 
mencing to  speak,  the  chief  men  of  the  state  stood  around  him, 
and  with  pressing  entreaties  urged  the  same  request.  The  rest 
of  them  indeed  had  less  weight  with  him,  but  after  Spurius 
Lucretius,  superior  to  all  the  others  in  age  and  high  charac- 
ter, who  was  besides  his  own  father-in-law,  began  to  try  vari- 
ous methods,  alternately  entreating  and  advising,  in  order  to 
induce  him  to  allow  himself  to  be  prevailed  on  by  the  general 
feeling  of  the  state,  the  consul,  apprehensive  that  hereafter  the 
same  lot  might  befall  him,  when  his  term  of  office  had  expired, 
as  well  as  loss  of  property  and  other  additional  disgrace,  re- 
signed his  consulship,  and  removing  all  his  effects  to  Lavini- 
um,  withdrew  from  the  city.  Brutus,  according  to  a  decree 
of  the  senate,  proposed  to  the  people,  that  all  who  belonged 
to  the  family  of  the  Tarquins  should  be  banished  from  Rome: 
in  the  assembly  of  centuries  he  elected  Publius  Valerius,  with 
whose  assistance  he  had  expelled  the  kings,  as  his  colleague. 
Though  nobody  doubted  that  a  war  was  impending  from 
the  Tarquins,  yet  it  broke  out  later  than  was  generally  ex- 
pected ;  however,  liberty  was  well-nigh  lost  by  fraud  and 


B.  c.  509]        CONSPIRACY  AGAINST  THE  STATE  75 

treachery,  a  thing  they  never  apprehended.  There  were 
among  the  Roman  youth  several  young  men — and  these  of  no 
mean  rank — who,  while  the  regal  government  lasted,  had  en- 
joyed greater  license  in  their  pleasures,  being  the  equals  in 
age,  and  boon  companions  of  the  young  Tarquins,  and  ac- 
customed to  live  after  the  fashion  of  princes.  Missing  that 
freedom,  now  that  the  privileges  of  all  were  equalized,1  they 
complained  among  themselves  that  the  liberty  of  others  had 
turned  out  slavery  for  them :  that  a  king  was  a  human  being, 
from  whom  one  could  obtain  what  one  wanted,  whether  the 
deed  might  be  an  act  of  justice  or  of  wrong;  that  there  was 
room  for  favour  and  good  offices;  that  he  could  be  angry, 
and  forgive;  that  he  knew  the  difference  between  a  friend  and 
an  enemy;  that  the  laws  were  a  deaf,  inexorable  thing,  more 
beneficial  and  advantageous  for  the  poor  than  for  the  rich; 
that  they  allowed  no  relaxation  or  indulgence,  if  one  trans- 
gressed due  bounds;  that  it  was  perilous,  amid  so  many 
human  errors,  to  have  no  security  for  life  but  innocence. 
While  their  minds  were  already  of  their  own  accord  thus  dis- 
contented, ambassadors  from  the  royal  family  arrived  unex- 
pectedly, merely  demanding  restitution  of  their  personal  prop- 
erty, without  any  mention  of  their  return.  After  their  applica- 
tion had  been  heard  in  the  senate,  the  deliberation  about  it 
lasted  for  several  days,  as  they  feared  that  the  non-restitution 
of  the  property  might  be  made  a  pretext  for  war,  its  restitu- 
tion a  fund  and  assistance  for  the  same.  In  the  meantime  the 
ambassadors  were  planning  a  different  scheme:  while  openly 
demanding  the  restoration  of  property,  they  secretly  concerted 
measures  for  recovering  the  throne,  and  soliciting  them,  as 
if  to  promote  that  which  appeared  to  be  the  object  in  view, 
they  sounded  the  minds  of  the  young  nobles;  to  those  by 
whom  their  proposals  were  favourably  received  they  gave  let- 
ters from  the  Tarquins,  and  conferred  with  them  about  admit- 
ting the  royal  family  into  the  city  secretly  by  night. 

The  matter  was  first  intrusted  to  the  brothers  Vitellii  and 
Aquilii.  A  sister  of  the  Vitellii  was  married  to  Brutus  the 
consul,  and  the  issue  of  that  marriage  were  the  grown-up  sons, 
Titus  and  Tiberius  ;  they  also  were  admitted  by  their  uncles  to 
share  the  plot :  several  young  nobles  also  were  taken  into  their 
confidence,  the  recollection  of  whose  names  has  been  lost  from 
lapse  of  time.  In  the  meantime,  as  that  opinion  had  prevailed 
in  the  senate,  which  was  in  favour  of  the  property  being  re- 
stored, the  ambassadors  made  use  of  this  as  a  pretext  for 

1  This,  of  course,  applied  only  to  patricians.    Plebeians  were  accounted 
nobodies. — D.  O. 


76  LIVY'S   ROMAN    HISTORY  [u.  C.  509 

lingering  in  the  city,  and  the  time  which  they  had  obtained 
from  the  consuls  to  procure  conveyances,  in  which  to  remove 
the  effects  of  the  royal  family,  they  spent  entirely  in  consulta- 
tions with  the  conspirators,  and  by  persistent  entreaties  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  letters  given  to  thfem  for  the  Tarquins. 
Otherwise  how  could  they  feel  sure  that  the  representations 
made  by  the  ambassadors  on  matters  of  such  importance  were 
not  false?  The  letters,  given  as  an  intended  pledge  of  their 
sincerity, caused  the  plot  to  be  discovered:  for  when, the  day  be- 
fore the  ambassadors  set  out  to  the  Tarquins,  they  had  supped 
by  chance  at  the  house  of  the  Vitellii,  and  the  conspirators  had 
there  discoursed  much  together  in  private,  as  was  natural,  con- 
cerning their  revolutionary  design,  one  of  the  slaves,  who  had 
already  observed  what  was  on  foot,  overheard  their  conversa- 
tion; he  waited,  however,  for  the  opportunity  when  the  letters 
should  be  given  to  the  ambassadors,  the  detection  of  which 
would  put  the  matter  beyond  a  doubt.  When  he  found  that 
they  had  been  given,  he  laid  the  whole  affair  before  the  con- 
suls. The  consuls  left  their  home  to  seize  the  ambassadors 
and  conspirators,  and  quashed  the  whole  affair  without  any 
disturbance,  particular  care  being  taken  of  the  letters,  to  pre- 
vent their  being  lost  or  stolen.  The  traitors  were  immediately 
thrown  into  prison :  some  doubt  was  entertained  concerning 
the  treatment  of  the  ambassadors,  and  though  their  conduct 
seemed  to  justify  their  being  considered  as  enemies,  the  law  of 
nations  nevertheless  prevailed. 

The  consideration  of  the  restoration  of  the  king's  effects, 
for  which  the  senate  had  formerly  voted,  was  laid  anew  before 
them.  The  fathers,  overcome  by  indignation,  expressly  for- 
bade either  their  restoration  or  confiscation.  They  were 
given  to  the  people  to  be  rifled,  that,  having  been  polluted  as 
it  were  by  participation  in  the  royal  plunder,  they  might  lose 
forever  all  hopes  of  a  reconciliation  with  the  Tarquins.  A 
field  belonging  to  the  latter,  which  lay  between  the  city  and 
the  Tiber,  having  been  consecrated  to  Mars,  was  afterward 
called  the  Campus  Martius.  It  is  said  that  there  was  by  chance, 
at  that  time,  a  crop  of  corn  upon  it  ripe  for  harvest;  this  prod- 
uce of  the  field,  as  they  thought  it  unlawful  to  use  it,  after  it 
had  been  reaped,  a  large  number  of  men,  sent  into  the  field 
together,  carried  in  baskets  corn  and  straw  together,  and 
threw  it  into  the  Tiber,  which  then  was  flowing  with  shallow 
water,  as  is  usual  in  the  heat  of  summer;  thus  the  heaps  of 
corn  as  they  stuck  in  the  shallows  settled  down,  covered  over 
with  mud;  by  means  of  these  and  other  substances  carried 
down  to  the  same  spot,  which  the  river  brings  along  hap-haz- 


B.C.  509]         PUNISHMENT  OF  THE   TRAITORS  77 

ard,  an  island  *  was  gradually  formed.  Afterward  I  believe  that 
substructures  were  added,  and  that  aid  was  given  by  human 
handicraft,  that  the  surface  might  be  well  raised,  as  it  is  now, 
and  strong  enough  besides  to  bear  the  weight  even  of  temples 
and  colonnades.  After  the  tyrant's  effects  had  been  plun- 
dered, the  traitors  were  condemned  and  punishment  inflicted. 
This  punishment  was  the  more  noticeable,  because  the  con- 
sulship imposed  on  the  father  the  office  of  punishing  his  own 
children,  and  to  him,  who  should  have  been  removed  even  as  a 
spectator,  was  assigned  by  fortune  the  duty  of  carrying  out 
the  punishment.  Young  men  of  the  highest  rank  stood  bound 
to  the  stake ;  but  the  consul's  sons  diverted  the  eyes  of  all  the 
spectators  from  the  rest  of  the  criminals,  as  from  persons  un- 
known; and  the  people  felt  pity,  not  so  much  on  account  of 
their  punishment,  as  of  the  crime  by  which  they  had  deserved 
it.  That  they,  in  that  year  above  all  others,  should  have 
brought  themselves  to  betray  into  the  hands  of  one,  who,  for- 
merly a  haughty  tyrant,  was  now  an  exasperated  exile,  their 
country  recently  delivered,  their  father  its  deliverer,  the  con- 
sulate which  took  its  rise  from  the  Junian  family,  the  fathers, 
the  people,  and  all  the  gods  and  citizens  of  Rome.  The  con- 
suls advanced  to  take  their  seats,  and  the  lictors  were  de- 
spatched to  inflict  punishment.  The  young  men  were  stripped 
naked,  beaten  with  rods,  and  their  heads  struck  off  with  the 
axe,  while  all  the  time  the  looks  and  countenance  of  the  father 
presented  a  touching  spectacle,  as  his  natural  feelings  displayed 
themselves  during  the  discharge  of  his  duty  in  inflicting  public 
punishment.  After  the  punishment  of  the  guilty,  that  the  ex- 
ample might  be  a  striking  one  in  both  aspects  for  the  pre- 
vention of  crime,  a  sum  of  money  was  granted  out  of  the 
treasury  as  a  reward  to  the  informer:  liberty  also  and  the 
rights  of  citizenship  were  conferred  upon  him.  He  is  said  to 
have  been  the  first  person  made  free  by  the  vindicta;  some 
think  that  even  the  term  vindicta  is  derived  from  him,  and  that 
his  name  was  Vindicius.2  After  him  it  was  observed  as  a 
rule,  that  all  who  were  set  free  in  this  manner  were  considered 
to  be  admitted  to  the  rights  of  Roman  citizens. 

On  receiving  the  announcement  of  these  events  as  they 
had  occurred,  Tarquin,  inflamed  not  only  with  grief  at  the  an- 
nihilation of  such  great  hopes,  but  also  with  hatred  and  re- 
sentment, when  he  saw  that  the  way  was  blocked  against 

1  The  insula  Tiberina  between  Rome  and  the  Janiculum. 

*  Vindicta  was  properly  the  rod  which  was  laid  on  the  head  of  a  slave 
by  the  magistrate  who  emancipated  him,  or  by  one  of  his  attendants  :  the 
word  is  supposed  to  be  derived  from  vim  dicere  (to  declare  authority). 


78  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  509 

stratagem,  considering  that  war  ought  to  be  openly  resorted 
to,  went  round  as  a  suppliant  to  the  cities  of  Etruria,  imploring 
above  all  the  Veientines  and  Tarquinians,  not  to  suffer  him, 
a  man  sprung  from  themselves,  of  the  same  stock,  to  perish 
before  their  eyes,  an  exile  and  in  want,  together  with  his 
grown-up  sons,  after  they  had  possessed  a  kingdom  recently 
so  flourishing.  That  others  had  been  invited  to  Rome  from 
foreign  lands  to  succeed  to  the  throne ;  that  he,  a  king,  while 
engaged  in  extending  the  Roman  Empire  by  arms,  had  been 
driven  out  by  his  nearest  relatives  by  a  villainous  conspiracy : 
that  they  had  seized  and  divided  his  kingdom  in  portions 
among  themselves,  because  no  one  individual  among  them 
was  deemed  sufficiently  deserving  of  it:  and  had  given  up  his 
effects  to  the  people  to  pillage,  that  no  one  might  be  without 
a  share  in  the  guilt.  That  he  was  desirous  of  recovering  his 
country  and  his  kingdom,  and  punishing  his  ungrateful  sub- 
jects. Let  them  bring  succour  and  aid  him;  let  them  also 
avenge  the  wrongs  done  to  them  of  old,  the  frequent  slaughter 
of  their  legions,  the  robbery  of  their  land.  These  arguments 
prevailed  on  the  people  of  Veii,  and  with  menaces  they  loudly 
declared,  each  in  their  own  name,  that  now  at  least,  under  the 
conduct  of  a  Roman  general,  their  former  disgrace  would  be 
wiped  out,  and  what  they  had  lost  in  war  would  be  recovered. 
His  name  and  relationship  influenced  the  people  of  Tarquinii, 
for  it  seemed  a  high  honour  that  their  countrymen  should 
reign  at  Rome.  Accordingly,  the  armies  of  these  two  states 
followed  Tarquin  to  aid  in  the  recovery  of  his  kingdom,  and 
to  take  vengeance  upon  the  Romans  in  war.  When  they 
entered  Roman  territory,  the  consuls  marched  to  meet  the 
enemy.  Valerius  led  the  infantry  in  a  square  battalion :  Bru- 
tus marched  in  front  with  the  cavalry  to  reconnoitre.  In  like 
manner  the  enemy's  horse  formed  the  van  of  the  army :  Ar- 
runs  Tarquinius,  the  king's  son,  was  in  command:  the  king 
himself  followed  with  the  legions.  Arruns,  when  he  knew  at  a 
distance  by  the  lictors  that  it  was  a  consul,  and  on  drawing 
nearer  more  surely  discovered  that  it  was  Brutus  by  his  face, 
inflamed  with  rage,  cried  out:  "Yonder  is  the  man  who  has 
driven  us  into  exile  from  our  native  country !  see  how  he  rides 
in  state  adorned  with  the  insignia  of  our  rank !  now  assist  me, 
ye  gods,  the  avengers  of  kings."  He  put  spurs  to  his  horse 
and  charged  furiously  against  the  consul.  Brutus  perceived 
that  he  was  being  attacked,  and,  as  it  was  honourable  in  those 
days  for  the  generals  to  personally  engage  in  battle,  he  ac- 
cordingly eagerly  offered  himself  for  combat.  They  charged 
with  such  furious  animosity,  neither  of  them  heedful  of  pro- 


B.  C.  509]  DEATH   OF   BRUTUS  79 

tecting  his  own  person,  provided  he  could  wound  his  oppo- 
nent, that  each,  pierced  through  the  buckler  by  his  adversary's 
blow,  fell  from  his  horse  in  the  throes  of  death,  still  transfixed 
by  the  two  spears.  The  engagement  between  the  rest  of  the 
horse  began  at  the  same  time,  and  soon  after  the  foot  came 
up.  There  they  fought  with  varying  success,  and  as  it  were 
with  equal  advantage.  The  right  wings  of  both  armies  were 
victorious,  the  left  worsted.  The  Veientines,  accustomed  to 
defeat  at  the  hands  of  the  Roman  soldiers,  were  routed  and 
put  to  flight.  The  Tarquinians,  who  were  a  new  foe,  not  only 
stood  their  ground,  but  on  their  side  even  forced  the  Romans 
to  give  way. 

After  the  engagement  had  thus  been  fought,  so  great  a 
terror  seized  Tarquinius  and  the  Etruscans,  that  both  armies, 
the  Veientine  and  Tarquinian,  abandoning  the  attempt  as  a 
fruitless  one,  departed  by  night  to  their  respective  homes. 
Strange  incidents  are  also  reported  in  the  account  of  this 
battle — that  in  the  stillness  of  the  next  night  a  loud  voice  was 
heard  from  the  Arsian  wood ; *  that  it  was  believed  to  be  the 
voice  of  Silvanus.  That  the  following  words  were  uttered: 
that  more  of  the  Tuscans  by  one  man  had  fallen  in  the  fight : 
that  the  Romans  were  victorious  in  the  war.  Under  these 
circumstances,  the  Romans  departed  thence  as  conquerors, 
the  Etruscans  as  practically  conquered.  For  as  soon  as  it 
was  light,  and  not  one  of  the  enemy  was  to  be  seen  anywhere, 
Publius  Valerius,  the  consul,  collected  the  spoils,  and  returned 
thence  in  triumph  to  Rome.  He  celebrated  the  funeral  of  his 
colleague  with  all  the  magnificence  possible  at  the  time.  But 
a  far  greater  honour  to  his  death  was  the  public  sorrow,  espe- 
cially remarkable  in  this  particular,  that  the  matrons  mourned 
him  for  a  year  as  a  parent,  because  he  had  shown  himself  so 
vigorous  an  avenger  of  violated  chastity.  Afterward,  the  con- 
sul who  survived — so  changeable  are  the  minds  of  the  people 
— after  enjoying  great  popularity,  encountered  not  only  jeal- 
ousy, but  suspicion,  that  originated  with  a  monstrous  charge. 
Report  represented  that  he  was  aspiring  to  kingly  power,  be- 
cause he  had  not  substituted  a  colleague  in  the  room  of  Bru- 
tus, and  was  building  on  the  top  of  Mount  Velia :  2  that  an  im- 
pregnable stronghold  was  being  erected  there  in  an  elevated 
and  well-fortified  position.  These  reports,  widely  circulated 
and  believed,  disquieted  the  consul's  mind  at  the  unworthiness 
of  the  charge ;  and,  having  summoned  the  people  to  an  assem- 
bly, he  mounted  the  platform,  after  lowering  the  fasces.  It 

1  Near  the  Janiculum,  between  the  Via  Aurelia  and  the  Via  Claudia. 
*  A  part  of  the  Palatine. — D.  O. 


go  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  509 

was  a  pleasing  sight  to  the  multitude  that  the  insignia  of  au- 
thority were  lowered  before  them,  and  that  acknowledgment 
was  made,  that  the  dignity  and  power  of  the  people  were 
greater  than  that  of  the  consul.  Then,  after  they  had  been 
bidden  to  listen,  the  consul  highly  extolled  the  good  fortune 
of  his  colleague,  in  that,  after  having  delivered  his  country,  he 
had  died  while  still  invested  with  the  highest  rank,  fighting  in 
defence  of  the  commonwealth,  when  his  glory  was  at  its 
height,  and  had  not  yet  turned  to  jealousy.  He  himself  (said 
he)  had  outlived  his  glory,  and  only  survived  to  incur  ac- 
cusation and  odium:  that,  from  being  the  liberator  of  his 
country,  he  had  fallen  back  to  the  level  of  the  Aquilii  and 
Vitellii.  "  Will  no  merit  then,"  said  he,  "  ever  be  so  approved 
in  your  eyes  as  to  be  exempt  from  the  attacks  of  suspicion? 
Was  I  to  apprehend  that  I,  that  bitterest  enemy  of  kings, 
should  myself  have  to  submit  to  the  charge  of  desiring  kingly 
power  ?  Was  I  to  believe  that,  even  though  I  should  dwell  in 
the  citadel  and  the  Capitol  itself,  I  should  be  dreaded  by  my 
fellow-citizens?  Does  my  character  among  you  depend  on 
so  mere  a  trifle?  Does  your  confidence  in  me  rest  on  such 
slight  foundations,  that  it  matters  more  where  I  am  than  what 
I  am?  The  house  of  Publius  Valerius  shall  not  stand  in  the 
way  of  your  liberty,  Quirites;  the  Velian  Mount  shall  be  se- 
cure to  you.  I  will  not  only  bring  down  my  house  into  the 
plain,  but  will  build  it  beneath  the  hill,  that  you  may  dwell 
above  me,  the  suspected  citizen.  Let  those  build  on  the  Ve- 
lian Mount,  to  whom  liberty  can  be  more  safely  intrusted  than 
to  Publius  Valerius."  Immediately  all  the  materials  were 
brought  down  to  the  foot  of  the  Velian  Mount,  and  the  house 
was  built  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  where  the  Temple  of  Vica  Pota  1 
now  stands. 

After  this  laws  were  proposed  by  the  consul,  such  as  not 
only  freed  him  from  all  suspicion  of  aiming  at  regal  power, 
but  had  so  contrary  a  tendency,  that  they  even  made  him 
popular.  At  this  time  he  was  surnamed  Publicola.  Above 
all,  the  laws  regarding  an  appeal  to  the  people  against  the 
magistrates,  and  declaring  accursed  the  life  and  property  of 
any  one  who  should  have  formed  the  design  of  seizing  regal 
authority,2  were  welcome  to  the  people.  Having  passed  these 
laws  while  sole  consul,  so  that  the  merit  of  them  might  be 
exclusively  his  own,  he  then  held  an  assembly  for  the  election 
of  a  new  colleague.  Spurius  Lucretius  was  elected  consul, 

1  The  goddess  of  victory  [vi(n)co-pot(is)]. 

1  Practically  a  sentence  of  combined  excommunication  and  outlawry. 
— D.  O. 


B.  €.508-507]      WAR   WITH   THE   ETRUSCANS  gl 

who,  owing  to  his  great  age,  and  his  strength  being  inade- 
quate to  discharge  the  consular  duties,  died  within  a  few  days. 
Marcus  Horatius  Pulvillus  was  chosen  in  the  room  of  Lucre- 
tius. In  some  ancient  authorities  I  find  no  mention  of  Lucre- 
tius as  consul ;  they  place  Horatius  immediately  after  Brutus. 
My  own  belief  is  that,  because  no  important  event  signalized 
his  consulate,  all  record  of  it  has  been  lost.  The  Temple  of 
Jupiter  on  the  Capitol  had  not  yet  been  dedicated;  the  con- 
suls Valerius  and  Horatius  cast  lots  which  should  dedicate  it. 
The  duty  fell  by  lot  to  Horatius.  Publicola  departed  to  con- 
duct the  war  against  the  Veientines.  The  friends  of  Valerius 
were  more  annoyed  than  the  circumstances  demanded,  that 
the  dedication  of  so  celebrated  a  temple  was  given  to  Hora- 
tius. Having  endeavoured  by  every  means  to  prevent  it, 
when  all  other  attempts  had  been  tried  and  failed,  at  the  mo- 
ment when  the  consul  was  holding  the  door-post  during  his 
offering  of  prayer  to  the  gods,  they  suddenly  announced  to 
him  the  startling  intelligence  that  his  son  was  dead,  and  that, 
while  his  family  was  polluted  by  death,  he  could  not  dedicate 
the  temple.  Whether  he  did  not  believe  that  it  was  true,  or 
whether  he  possessed  such  great  strength  of  mind,  is  neither 
handed  down  for  certain,  nor  is  it  easy  to  decide.  On  receiv- 
ing the  news,  holding  the  door-post,  without  turning  off  his 
attention  in  any  other  way  from  the  business  he  was  engaged 
in,  save  that  he  ordered  the  body  to  be  carried  out  for  burial,  he 
completed  the  form  of  prayer,  and  dedicated  the  temple.  Such 
were  the  transactions  at  home  and  abroad  during  the  first  year 
after  the  expulsion  of  the  kings.  After  this  Publius  Valerius, 
for  the  second  time,  and  Titus  Lucretius  were  elected  consuls. 
By  this  time  the  Tarquins  had  fled  to  Lars  Porsina,  King 
of  Clusium.  There,  mingling  advice  with  entreaties,  they 
now  besought  him  not  to  suffer  them,  who  were  descended 
from  the  Etruscans,  and  of  the  same  stock  and  name,  to  live 
in  exile  and  poverty ;  now  advised  him  also  not  to  let  the  rising 
practice  of  expelling  kings  pass  unpunished.  Liberty  in  itself 
had  charms  enough ;  and,  unless  kings  defended  their  thrones 
with  as  much  vigour  as  the  people  strove  for  liberty,  the  high- 
est was  put  on  a  level  with  the  lowest ;  there  would  be  nothing 
exalted  in  states,  nothing  to  be  distinguished  above  the  rest ; 
that  the  end  of  regal  government,  the  most  beautiful  institu- 
tion both  among  gods  and  men,  was  close  at  hand.  Porsina, 
thinking  it  a  great  honour  to  the  Tuscans  both  that  there 
should  be  a  king  at  Rome,  and  that  one  belonging  to  the 
Etruscan  nation,  marched  toward  Rome  with  a  hostile  army. 
Never  before  on  any  other  occasion  did  such  terror  seize  the 


g2  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  508-507 

senate ;  so  powerful  was  the  state  of  Clusium  *  at  that  time,  and 
so  great  the  renown  of  Porsina.  Nor  did  they  dread  their 
enemies  only,  but  even  their  own  citizens,  lest  the  common 
people  of  Rome,  smitten  with  fear,  should,  by  receiving  the 
Tarquins  into  the  city,  accept  peace  even  at  the  price  of  slav- 
ery. Many  concessions  were  therefore  granted  to  the  people 
by  the  senate  during  that  period  by  way  of  conciliating  them. 
Their  attention,  in  the  first  place,  was  directed  to  the  markets, 
and  persons  were  sent,  some  to  the  country  of  the  Volscians, 
others  to  Cumae,  to  buy  up  corn.  The  privilege  of  selling  salt 
also  was  withdrawn  from  private  individuals  because  it  was 
sold  at  an  exorbitant  price,  while  all  the  expense  fell  upon  the 
state : 2  and  the  people  were  freed  from  duties  and  taxes,  inas- 
much as  the  rich,  since  they  were  in  a  position  to  bear  the  bur- 
den, should  contribute  them;  the  poor,  they  said,  paid  taxes 
enough  if  they  brought  up  their  children.  This  indulgence 
on  the  part  of  the  fathers  accordingly  kept  the  state  so  united 
during  their  subsequent  adversity  in  time  of  siege  and  famine, 
that  the  lowest  as  much  as  the  highest  abhorred  the  name  of 
king;  nor  did  any  single  individual  afterward  gain  such  popu- 
larity by  intriguing  practices,  as  the  whole  body  of  the  senate 
at  that  time  by  their  excellent  government. 

On  the  approach  of  the  enemy,  they  all  withdrew  for  pro- 
tection from  the  country  into  the  city,  and  protected  the  city 
itself  with  military  garrisons.  Some  parts  seemed  secured 
by  the  walls,  others  by  the  Tiber  between.  The  Sublician  3 
bridge  well-nigh  afforded  a  passage  to  the  enemy,  had  it  not 
been  for  one  man,  Horatius  Codes:  in  him  the  protecting 
spirit  of  Rome  on  that  day  found  a  defence.  He  happened  to 
be  posted  on  guard  at  the  bridge:  and,  when  he  saw  the  Ja- 
niculum  taken  by  a  sudden  assault,  and  the  enemy  pouring 
down  from  thence  at  full  speed,  and  his  own  party,  in  confu- 
sion, abandoning  their  arms  and  ranks,  seizing  hold  of  them 
one  by  one,  standing  in  their  way,  and  appealing  to  the  faith 
of  gods  and  men,  he  declared,  that  their  flight  would  avail 
them  nothing  if  they  deserted  their  post;  if  they  crossed  the 

1  Now  Chiusi. 

*  They  did  not  let  these  salt-works  by  auction,  but  took  them  under 
their  own  management,  and  carried  them  on  by  means  of  persons  em- 
ployed to  work  on  the  public  account.    These  salt-works,  first  established 
at  Ostia  by  Ancus,  were,  like  other  public  property,  farmed  out  to  the 
publicans.     As  they  had  a  high  rent  to  pay,  the  price  of  salt  was  raised 
in  proportion  ;    but  now  the   patricians,  to  curry  favour  with   the   ple- 
beians, did  not  let  the  salt-pits  to  private  tenants,  but  kept  them  in  the 
hands  of  public  labourers,  to  collect  all  the  salt  for  the  public  use  ;  and 
appointed  salesmen  to  retail  it  to  the  people  at  a  cheaper  rate. 

*  Just  below  the  sole  remaining  pillar  of  the  Pons  ^Emilius. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  508-507]    BRAVERY  OF  HORATIUS  COCLES  83 

bridge  and  left  it  behind  them,  there  would  soon  be  greater 
numbers  of  the  enemy  in  the  Palatium  and  Capitol  than  in  the 
Janiculum;  therefore  he  advised  and  charged  them  to  break 
down  the  bridge,  by  sword,  by  fire,  or  by  any  violent  means 
whatsoever;  that  he  himself  would  receive  the  attack  of  the 
enemy  as  far  as  resistance  could  be  offered  by  the  person  of 
one  man.  He  then  strode  to  the  front  entrance  of  the  bridge, 
and  being  easily  distinguished  among  those  whose  backs  were 
seen  as  they  gave  way  before  the  battle,  he  struck  the  enemy 
with  amazement  by  his  surprising  boldness  as  he  faced  round 
in  arms  to  engage  the  foe  hand  to  hand.  Two,  however,  a 
sense  of  shame  kept  back  with  him,  Spurius  Larcius  and  Titus 
Herminius,  both  men  of  high  birth,  and  renowned  for  their 
gallant  exploits.  With  them  he  for  a  short  time  stood  the  first 
storm  of  danger,  and  the  severest  brunt  of  the  battle.  After- 
ward, as  those  who  were  cutting  down  the  bridge  called  upon 
them  to  retire,  and  only  a  small  portion  of  it  was  left,  he 
obliged  them  also  to  withdraw  to  a  place  of  safety.  Then, 
casting  his  stern  eyes  threateningly  upon  all  the  nobles  of  the 
Etruscans,  he  now  challenged  them  singly,  now  reproached 
them  all  as  the  slaves  of  haughty  tyrants,  who,  unmindful  of 
their  own  freedom,  came  to  attack  that  of  others.  For  a  con- 
siderable time  they  hesitated,  looking  round  one  upon  an- 
other, waiting  to  begin  the  fight.  A  feeling  of  shame  then 
stirred  the  army,  and  raising  a  shout,  they  hurled  their  weap- 
ons from  all  sides  on  their  single  adversary;  and  when  they 
had  all  stuck  in  the  shield  he  held  before  him,  and  he  with  no 
less  obstinacy  kept  possession  of  the  bridge  with  firm  step, 
they  now  began  to  strive  to  thrust  him  down  from  it  by  their 
united  attack,  when  the  crash  of  the  falling  bridge,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  shout  raised  by  the  Romans  for  joy  at  having 
completed  their  task,  checked  their  assault  with  sudden  con- 
sternation. Then  Codes  said,  "  Father  Tiberinus,  holy  one,  I 
pray  thee,  receive  these  arms,  and  this  thy  soldier,  in  thy  fa- 
vouring stream."  So,  in  full  armour,  just  as  he  was,  he  leaped 
into  the  Tiber,  and,  amid  showers  of  darts  that  fell  upon  him, 
swam  across  unharmed  to  his  comrades,  having  dared  a  deed 
which  is  likely  to  obtain  more  fame  than  belief  with  posterity.1 

1  Macaulay,  in  his  "  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome,"  has  made  this  incident  the 
basis  of  one  of  the  most  stirring  poems  in  the  English  language.    Though 
familiar  to  all,  it  does  not  seem  out  of  place  to  quote  from  his  "  Hora- 
tius  "  in  connection  with  the  story  as  told  by  Livy  : 
"  Alone  stood  brave  Horatius, 
But  constant  still  in  mind  ; 
Thrice  thirty  thousand  foes  before 
And  the  broad  flood  behind. 


g4  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  508-507 

The  state  showed  itself  grateful  toward  such  distinguished 
valour;  a  statue  of  him  was  erected  in  the  comitium,  and  as 
much  land  was  given  to  him  as  he  could  draw  a  furrow  round 
in  one  day  with  a  plough.  The  zeal  of  private  individuals 
also  was  conspicuous  in  the  midst  of  public  honours.  For, 
notwithstanding  the  great  scarcity,  each  person  contributed 

'  Down  with  him  ! '  cried  false  Sextus, 

With  smile  on  his  pale  face. 
'  Now  yield  thee,'  cried  Lars  Porsena, 

'  Now  yield  thee  to  our  grace.' 

"  '  O  Tiber  !  father  Tiber  ! 

To  whom  the  Romans  pray, 
A  Roman's  life,  a  Roman's  arms, 

Take  thou  in  charge  this  day  ! ' 
So  he  spake,  and  speaking,  sheathed 

The  good  sword  by  his  side, 
And  with  his  harness  on  his  back 

Plunged  headlong  in  the  tide. 

"  No  sound  of  joy  or  sorrow 

Was  heard  from  either  bank, 
But  friends  and  foes,  in  dumb  surprise, 
With  parted  lips  and  straining  eyes, 

Stood  gazing  where  he  sank  ; 
And  when  above  the  surges 

They  saw  his  crest  appear, 
All  Rome  sent  forth  a  rapturous  cry, 
And  even  the  ranks  of  Tuscany 

Could  scarce  forbear  to  cheer. 

"  But  fiercely  ran  the  current, 

Swollen  high  by  months  of  rain  ; 
And  fast  his  blood  was  flowing, 

And  he  was  sore  in  pain, 
And  heavy  with  his  armour, 

And  spent  with  changing  blows  ; 
And  oft  they  thought  him  sinking, 

But  still  again  he  rose. 

"  '  Curse  on  him  ! '  quoth  false  Sextus, 

'  Will  not  the  villain  drown  ? 
But  for  this  stay,  ere  close  of  day, 

We  should  have  sacked  the  town  ! ' 
'  Heaven  help  him  ! '  quoth  Lars  Porsena 

'  And  bring  him  safe  to  shore  ; 
For  such  a  gallant  feat  of  arms 

Was  never  seen  before." 

"  And  now  he  feels  the  bottom  ; 
Now  on  dry  earth  he  stands  ; 
Now  round  him  throng  the  fathers 
To  press  his  gory  hands  ; 


B.  c.  508-507]  PORSINA   BESIEGES   ROME  85 

something  to  him  in  proportion  to  his  private  means,  depriv- 
ing himself  of  his  own  means  of  support. 

Porsina,  repulsed  in  his  first  attempt,  having  changed  his 
plans  to  a  siege  of  the  city,  and  a  blockade,  and  pitched  his 
camp  in  the  plain  and  on  the  bank  of  the  Tiber,  placed  a  gar- 
rison in  the  Janiculum.  Then,  sending  for  boats  from  all 
parts,  both  to  guard  the  river,  so  as  to  prevent  any  provisions 
being  conveyed  up  stream  to  Rome,  and  also  that  his  soldiers 
might  get  across  to  plunder  in  different  places  as  opportunity 
offered,  in  a  short  time  he  so  harassed  all  the  country  round 
Rome,  that  not  only  was  everything  else  conveyed  out  of 
the  country,  but  even  the  cattle  were  driven  into  the  city,  and 
nobody  ventured  to  drive  them  without  the  gates.  This  lib- 
erty of  action  was  granted  to  the  Etruscans,  not  more  from 
fear  than  from  design :  for  the  consul  Valerius,  eager  for  an 
opportunity  of  falling  unawares  upon  a  number  of  them  to- 
gether in  loose  order,  careless  of  taking  vengeance  in  trifling 
matters,  reserved  himself  as  a  serious  avenger  for  more  im- 
portant occasions.  Accordingly,  in  order  to  draw  out  the  pil- 
lagers, he  ordered  a  large  body  of  his  men  to  drive  out  their 
cattle  the  next  day  by  the  Esquiline  gate,  which  was  farthest 
from  the  enemy,  thinking  that  they  would  get  intelligence 
of  it,  because  during  the  blockade  and  scarcity  of  provisions 
some  of  the  slaves  would  turn  traitors  and  desert.  And  in  fact 
they  did  learn  by  the  information  of  a  deserter,  and  parties  far 
more  numerous  than  usual  crossed  the  river  in  the  hope  of 
seizing  all  the  booty  at  once.  Then  Publius  Valerius  com- 
manded Titus  Herminius,  with  a  small  force,  to  lie  in  ambush 
at  the  second  milestone  on  the  road  to  Gabii,  and  Spurius  Lar- 
cius,  with  a  party  of  light-armed  youths,  to  post  himself  at  the 
Colline  gate  while  the  enemy  was  passing  by,  and  then  to 
throw  himself  in  their  way  to  cut  off  their  return  to  the  river. 
The  other  consul,  Titus  Lucretius,  marched  out  of  the  Naevian 

And  now  with  shouts  and  clapping, 

And  noise  of  weeping  loud, 
He  enters  through  the  River-gate 

Borne  by  the  joyous  crowd. 

"When  the  goodman  mends  his  armour, 

And  trims  his  helmet's  plume  ; 
When  the  goodwife's  shuttle  merrily 

Goes  flashing  through  the  loom  ; 
With  weeping  and  with  laughter 

Still  is  the  story  told, 
How  well  Horatius  kept  the  bridge 

In  the  brave  days  of  old." 


g6  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  508-507 

gate  with  some  companies  of  soldiers,  while  Valerius  himself 
led  some  chosen  cohorts  down  from  the  Coelian  Mount.  These 
were  the  first  who  were  seen  by  the  enemy.  Herminius,  when 
he  perceived  the  alarm,  rushed  from  his  ambush  and  fell  upon 
the  rear  of  the  Etruscans,  who  had  turned  against  Valerius. 
The  shout  was  returned  on  the  right  and  left,  from  the  Col- 
line  gate  on  the  one  side  and  the  Naevian  on  the  other.  Thus 
the  plunderers  were  put  to  the  sword  between  both,  being 
neither  their  match  in  strength  for  fighting,  and  all  the  ways 
being  blocked  up  to  prevent  escape:  this  put  an  end  to  the 
disorderly  raids  of  the  Etruscans. 

The  blockade,  however,  was  carried  on  none  the  less,  and 
corn  was  both  scarce  and  very  dear.  Porsina  still  entertained 
the  hope  that,  by  continuing  the  blockade,  he  would  be  able  to 
reduce  the  city,  when  Gaius  Mucius,  a  young  noble,  who  con- 
sidered it  a  disgrace  that  the  Roman  people,  who,  even  when 
in  a  state  of  slavery,  while  under  the  kings,  had  never  been 
confined  within  their  walls  during  any  war,  or  blockaded  by 
any  enemy,  should  now,  when  a  free  people,  be  blockaded  by 
these  very  Etruscans  whose  armies  they  had  often  routed — 
and  thinking  that  such  disgrace  ought  to  be  avenged  by  some 
great  and  daring  deed,  at  first  designed  on  his  own  responsi- 
bility to  make  his  way  into  the  enemy's  camp.  Then,  being 
afraid  that,  if  he  went  without  the  permission  of  the  consuls, 
and  unknown  to  all,  he  might  perhaps  be  seized  by  the  Roman 
guards  and  brought  back  as  a  deserter,  since  the  circumstances 
of  the  city  at  the  time  rendered  such  a  charge  credible,  he  ap- 
proached the  senate.  "  Fathers,"  said  he,  "  I  desire  to  cross 
the  Tiber,  and  enter  the  enemy's  camp,  if  I  may  be  able,  not 
as  a  plunderer,  nor  as  an  avenger  to  exact  retribution  for  their 
devastations :  a  greater  deed  is  in  my  mind,  if  the  gods  assist." 
The  senate  approved.  He  set  out  with  a  dagger  concealed 
under  his  garment.  When  he  reached  the  camp,  he  stationed 
himself  where  the  crowd  was  thickest,  near  the  king's  tribunal. 
There,  as  the  soldiers  happened  to  be  receiving  their  pay,  and 
the  king's  secretary,  sitting  by  him,  similarly  attired,  was 
busily  engaged,  and  generally  addressed  by  the  soldiers,  he 
killed  the  secretary,  against  whom  chance  blindly  directed  the 
blow,  instead  of  the  king,  being  afraid  to  ask  which  of  the  two 
was  Porsina,  lest,  by  displaying  his  ignorance  of  the  king,  he 
should  disclose  who  he  himself  was.  As  he  was  moving  off 
in  the  direction  where  with  his  bloody  dagger  he  had  made  a 
way  for  himself  through  the  dismayed  multitude,  the  crowd 
ran  up  on  hearing  the  noise,  and  he  was  immediately  seized 
and  brought  back  by  the  king's  guards :  being  set  before  the 


B.  C.  508-507]          STORY  OF  GAIUS   MUCIUS  87 

king's  tribunal,  even  then,  amid  the  perilous  fortune  that 
threatened  him,  more  capable  of  inspiring  dread  than  of  feel- 
ing it,  "  I  am,"  said  he,  "  a  Roman  citizen ;  men  call  me  Gaius 
Mucius ;  an  enemy,  I  wished  to  slay  an  enemy,  nor  have  I  less 
courage  to  suffer  death  than  I  had  to  inflict  it.  Both  to  do 
and  to  suffer  bravely  is  a  Roman's  part.  Nor  have  I  alone 
harboured  such  feelings  toward  you ;  there  follows  after  me  a 
long  succession  of  aspirants  to  the  same  honour.  Therefore, 
if  you  choose,  prepare  yourself  for  this  peril,  to  be  in  danger 
of  your  life  from  hour  to  hour:  to  find  the  sword  and  the 
enemy  at  the  very  entrance  of  your  tent:  such  is  the  war  we, 
the  youth  of  Rome,  declare  against  you ;  dread  not  an  army  in 
the  field,  nor  a  battle ;  you  will  have  to  contend  alone  and  with 
each  of  us  one  by  one."  When  the  king,  furious  with  rage, 
and  at  the  same  time  terrified  at  the  danger,  threateningly 
commanded  fires  to  be  kindled  about  him,  if  he  did  not  speed- 
ily disclose  the  plots,  at  which  in  his  threats  he  had  darkly 
hinted,  Mucius  said,  "  See  here,  that  you  may  understand  of 
how  little  account  the  body  is  to  those  who  have  great  glory  in 
view  " ;  and  immediately  thrust  his  right  hand  into  the  fire 
that  was  lighted  for  sacrifice.  When  he  allowed  it  to  burn  as 
if  his  spirit  were  quite  insensible  to  any  feeling  of  pain,  the 
king,  well-nigh  astounded  at  this  surprising  sight,  leaped  from 
his  seat  and  commanded  the  young  man  to  be  removed  from 
the  altar.  "  Depart,"  said  he,  "  thou  who  hast  acted  more 
like  an  enemy  toward  thyself  than  toward  me.  I  would  bid 
thee  go  on  and  prosper  in  thy  valour,  if  that  valour  were  on 
the  side  of  my  country.  I  now  dismiss  thee  unharmed  and 
unhurt,  exempt  from  the  right  of  war."  Then  Mucius,  as  if 
in  return  for  the  kindness,  said :  "  Since  bravery  is  held  in 
honour  with  you,  that  you  may  obtain  from  me  by  your  kind- 
ness that  which  you  could  not  obtain  by  threats,  know  that  we 
are  three  hundred,  the  chief  of  the  Roman  youth,  who  have 
conspired  to  attack  you  in  this  manner.  The  lot  fell  upon  me 
first.  The  rest  will  be  with  you  each  in  his  turn,  according  to 
the  fortune  that  shall  befall  me  who  drew  the  first  lot,  until 
fortune  on  some  favourable  opportunity  shall  have  delivered 
you  into  their  hands." 

Mucius,  to  whom  the  surname  of  Scaevola  1  was  afterward 
given  from  the  loss  of  his  right  hand,  was  let  go  and  am- 
bassadors from  Porsina  followed  him  to  Rome.  The  danger 
of  the  first  attempt,  in  which  nothing  had  protected  him  but 
the  mistake  of  his  secret  assailant,  and  the  thought  of  the 

1  Of  the  left  hand.— D.  O. 


gg  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  507-506 

risk  of  life  he  would  have  to  run  so  often  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  surviving  conspirators  that  remained,  made  so 
strong  an  impression  upon  him  that  of  his  own  accord  he 
offered  terms  of  peace  to  the  Romans.  In  these  terms  the 
restoration  of  the  Tarquins  to  the  throne  was  proposed  and 
discussed  without  success,  rather  because  he  felt  he  could 
not  refuse  that  to  the  Tarquins,  than  from  ignorance  that  it 
would  be  refused  him  by  the  Romans.  In  regard  to  the 
restoration  of  territory  to  the  Veientines  his  request  was 
granted,  and  the  obligation  of  giving  hostages,  if  they  wished 
the  garrison  to  be  withdrawn  from  the  Janiculum,  was  ex- 
torted from  the  Romans.  Peace  being  concluded  on  these 
terms,  Porsina  led  his  troops  down  from  the  Janiculum,  and 
withdrew  from  Roman  territory.  The  fathers  bestowed  upon 
Gaius  Mucius,  in  reward  for  his  valour,  some  land  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Tiber,  which  was  afterward  called  the  Mucian 
meadows.  By  this  honour  paid  to  valour  women  also  were 
roused  to  deeds  that  brought  glory  to  the  state.  Among 
others,  a  young  woman  named  Cloelia,  one  of  the  hostages, 
escaped  her  keepers,  and,  as  the  camp  of  the  Etruscans  had 
been  pitched  not  far  from  the  bank  of  the  Tiber,  swam  over 
the  river,  amid  the  darts  of  the  enemy,  at  the  head  of  a  band  of 
maidens,  and  brought  them  all  back  in  safety  to  their  relations 
at  Rome.  When  news  of  this  was  brought  to  the  king,  at 
first,  furious  with  rage,  he  sent  deputies  to  Rome  to  demand 
the  hostage  Cloelia,  saying  that  he  did  not  set  great  store  by 
the  rest:  afterward,  his  feelings  being  changed  to  admiration, 
he  said  that  this  deed  surpassed  those  of  men  like  Codes  and 
Mucius,  and  further  declared  that,  as  he  would  consider  the 
treaty  broken  if  the  hostage  were  not  delivered  up,  so,  if 
she  were  given  up,  he  would  send  her  back  unharmed  and 
unhurt  to  her  friends.  Both  sides  kept  faith:  the  Romans 
restored  their  pledge  of  peace  according  to  treaty:  and  with 
the  Etruscan  king  valour  found  not  only  security,  but  also 
honour;  and,  after  praising  the  maiden,  he  promised  to  give 
her,  as  a  present,  half  the  hostages,  allowing  her  to  choose 
whom  she  pleased.  When  they  had  all  been  led  forth,  she  is 
said  to  have  picked  out  those  below  the  age  of  puberty,  a 
choice  which  both  reflected  honour  upon  her  maiden  delicacy, 
and  was  one  likely  to  be  approved  of  by  consent  of  the  hos- 
tages themselves — that  those  who  were  of  such  an  age  as 
was  most  exposed  to  injury  should  above  all  others  be  deliv- 
ered from  the  enemy.  Peace  being  renewed,  the  Romans 
rewarded  this  instance  of  bravery  uncommon  in  a  woman 
with  an  uncommon  kind  of  honour:  an  equestrian  statue, 


B.  C.  507-506]     PORSINA   ABANDONS   THE   SIEGE  89 

which,    representing    a    maiden    sitting    on    horseback,    was 
erected  at  the  top  of  the  Via  Sacra.1 

The  custom  handed  down  from  the  ancients,  and  which 
has  continued  down  to  our  times  among  other  usages  at 
public  sales,  that  of  selling  the  goods  of  King  Porsina,  is  in- 
consistent with  this  account  of  so  peaceful  a  departure  of  the 
Etruscan  king  from  the  city.  The  origin  of  this  custom  must 
either  have  arisen  during  the  war,  and  not  been  abandoned 
in  time  of  peace,  or  it  must  have  grown  from  a  milder  begin- 
ning than  the  form  of  expression  seems,  on  the  face  of  it,  to 
indicate,  of  selling  the  goods  as  if  taken  from  an  enemy.  Of 
the  accounts  handed  down,  the  most  probable  is,  that  Por- 
sina, when  retiring  from  the  Janiculum,  made  a  present  to 
the  Romans  of  his  camp  rich  with  stores  of  provisions  con- 
veyed from  the  neighbouring  fertile  fields  of  Etruria,  as  the 
city  was  then  exhausted  owing  to  the  long  siege:  that  then, 
to  prevent  its  contents  being  plundered  as  if  it  belonged  to  an 
enemy  when  the  people  were  admitted,  they  were  sold,  and 
called  the  goods  of  Porsina,  the  expression  rather  conveying 
the  idea  of  a  thankworthy  gift  than  an  auction  of  the  king's 
property,  seeing  that  this  never  even  came  into  the  power 
of  the  Roman  people.  Porsina,  having  abandoned  the  war 
against  the  Romans,  that  his  army  might  not  seem  to  have 
been  led  into  those  parts  to  no  purpose,  sent  his  son  Arruns 
with  part  of  his  forces  to  besiege  Aricia.  The  unexpected 
occurrence  at  first  terrified  the  Aricians:  afterward  aid,  which 
had  been  sent  for,  both  from  the  people  of  Latium  and  from 
Cumae,2  inspired  such  hope  that  they  ventured  to  try  the  issue 
of  a  pitched  battle.  At  the  beginning  of  the  battle  the  Etrus- 
cans attacked  so  furiously  that  they  routed  the  Aricians  at 
the  first  onset.  But  the  Cuman  cohorts,  employing  strata- 
gem against  force,  moved  off  a  little  to  one  side,  and  when 
the  enemy  were  carried  beyond  them  in  loose  array,  they 
wheeled  round  and  attacked  them  in  the  rear.  By  this  means 
the  Etruscans,  when  on  the  point  of  victory,  were  hemmed 
in  and  cut  to  pieces.  A  very  small  number  of  them,  having 
lost  their  general,  and  having  no  nearer  refuge,  came  to  Rome 
without  their  arms,  in  the  plight  and  guise  of  suppliants. 
There  they  were  kindly  received  and  distributed  in  different 
lodgings.  When  their  wounds  had  been  attended  to,  some 
went  home  and  recounted  the  kind  hospitality  they  had  met 

1  Probably  where  the  Cliva  Capitolina  begins  to  ascend  the  slope  of 
the  Capitol.— D.  O. 

1  The  most  ancient  of  the  Greek  colonies  in  Italy.  Its  ruins  are  on 
the  coast  north  of  the  Promontory  of  Miseno. — D.  O. 


go  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.507-506 

with.  Affection  for  their  hosts  and  for  the  city  caused  many 
others  to  remain  at  Rome:  a  quarter  was  assigned  them  to 
dwell  in,  which  has  ever  since  been  called  the  Tuscan  Street.1 

Spurius  Lucretius  and  Publius  Valerius  Publicola  were 
next  elected  consuls.  In  that  year  ambassadors  came  from 
Porsina  for  the  last  time,  to  discuss  the  restoration  of  Tar- 
quin  to  the  throne.  And  when  answer  had  been  given  them, 
that  the  senate  would  send  deputies  to  the  king,  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  that  order  were  forthwith  despatched  to  explain 
that  it  was  not  because  the  answer  could  not  have  been  given 
in  a  few  words — that  the  royal  family  would  not  be  received — 
that  select  members  of  the  senate  had  been  deputed  to  him, 
rather  than  an  answer  given  to  his  ambassadors  at  Rome,  but 
in  order  that  all  mention  of  the  matter  might  be  put  an  end 
to  forever,  and  that  their  minds  might  not  be  disturbed  amid 
so  many  mutual  acts  of  kindness  on  both  sides,  by  his  asking 
what  was  adverse  to  the  liberty  of  the  Roman  people,  and  by 
their  refusing  him  (unless  they  were  willing  to  promote  their 
own  destruction)  whom  they  would  willingly  refuse  nothing. 
That  the  Roman  people  were  not  now  under  a  kingly  govern- 
ment, but  in  the  enjoyment  of  freedom,  and  were  accordingly 
resolved  to  open  their  gates  to  enemies  sooner  than  to  kings. 
That  it  was  the  wish  of  all,  that  the  end  of  their  city's  free- 
dom might  also  be  the  end  of  the  city  itself.  Wherefore, 
if  he  wished  Rome  to  be  safe,  they  entreated  him  to  suffer 
it  to  be  free.  The  king,  overcome  by  feelings  of  respect,  re- 
plied :  "  Since  that  is  your  firm  and  fixed  resolve,  I  will  neither 
annoy  you  by  importunities,  by  urging  the  same  request  too 
often  to  no  purpose,  nor  will  I  disappoint  the  Tarquins  by 
holding  out  hopes  of  aid,  which  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  give 
them;  whether  they  have  need  of  peace,  or  of  war,  let  them 
go  hence  and  seek  another  place  of  exile,  that  nothing  may 
hinder  the  peace  between  us."  To  kindly  words  he  added 
deeds  still  more  friendly:  he  delivered  up  the  remainder  of 
the  hostages,  and  restored  to  them  the  land  of  the  Veientines, 
which  had  been  taken  from  them  by  the  treaty  concluded 
at  the  Janiculum.  Tarquin,  now  that  all  hope  of  return  was 
cut  off,  went  into  exile  to  Tusculum  2  to  his  son-in-law  Oc- 
tavius  Mamilius.  Thus  a  lasting  peace  was  concluded  be- 
tween Porsina  and  the  Romans. 

The  next  consuls  were  Marcus  Valerius  and  Publius  Pos- 
tumius.  During  that  year  war  was  carried  on  successfully 

1  Leading  from  the  forum  to  the  Velabrum. 

1  It  was  situated  in  the  Alban  Hills  about  ten  miles  from  Rome,  on  the 
site  of  the  modern  Frascati. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  507-506]     DEATH  OF  PUBLIUS  VALERIUS  91 

against  the  Sabines;  the  consuls  received  the  honour  of  a 
triumph.  Upon  this  the  Sabines  made  preparations  for  war 
on  a  larger  scale.  To  make  head  against  them,  and  to  pre- 
vent any  sudden  danger  arising  from  Tusculum,  from  which 
quarter  war,  though  not  openly  declared,  was  suspected,  Pub- 
lius  Valerius  was  created  consul  a  fourth  time,  and  Titus 
Lucretius  a  second  time.  A  disturbance  that  arose  among 
the  Sabines  between  the  advocates  of  war  and  of  peace,  trans- 
ferred considerable  strength  from  them  to  the  Romans.  For 
Attius  Clausus,  who  was  afterward  called  Appius  Claudius 
at  Rome,  being  himself  an  advocate  of  peace,  when  hard 
pressed  by  the  agitators  for  war,  and  being  no  match  for  the 
party,  fled  from  Regillum  to  Rome,  accompanied  by  a  great 
number  of  dependents.  The  rights  of  citizenship  and  land 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Anio  were  bestowed  on  them.  This 
settlement  was  called  the  old  Claudian  tribe,  and  was  subse- 
quently increased  by  the  addition  of  new  tribesmen  who  kept 
arriving  from  that  district.  Appius,  being  chosen  into  the 
senate,  was  soon  after  advanced  to  the  rank  of  the  highest 
in  that  order.  The  consuls  entered  the  territories  of  the  Sa- 
bines with  a  hostile  army,  and  when,  both  by  laying  waste 
their  country,  and  afterward  by  defeating  them  in  battle,  they 
had  so  weakened  the  power  of  the  enemy  that  for  a  long 
time  there  was  no  reason  to  dread  the  renewal  of  the  war  in 
that  quarter,  they  returned  to  Rome  in  triumph.  The  follow- 
ing year,  Agrippa  Menenius  and  Publius  Postumius  being 
consuls,  Publius  Valerius,  by  universal  consent  the  ablest  man 
in  Rome,  in  the  arts  both  of  peace  and  war,  died  covered 
with  glory,  but  in  such  straitened  private  circumstances  that 
there  was  not  enough  to  defray  the  expenses  of  a  public 
funeral:  one  was  given  him  at  the  public  charge.  The  ma- 
trons mourned  for  him  as  they  had  done  for  Brutus.  The 
same  year  two  Latin  colonies,  Pometia  and  Cora,1  revolted  to 
the  Auruncans.2  War  was  commenced  against  the  Auruncans, 
and  after  a  large  army,  which  boldly  met  the  consuls  as  they 
were  entering  their  frontiers,  had  been  defeated,  all  the  opera- 
tions of  the  Auruncan  war  were  concentrated  at  Pometia. 
Nor,  after  the  battle  was  over,  did  they  refrain  from  slaughter 
any  more  than  when  it  was  going  on:  the  number  of  the 
slain  was  considerably  greater  than  that  of  the  prisoners, 
and  the  latter  they  put  to  death  indiscriminately.  Nor  did 
the  wrath  of  war  spare  even  the  hostages,  three  hundred  in 

1  Suessa-Pometia,  mentioned  in  former  note.      Cora  is  now  Cori.— 
D.  O. 

*  Their  home  was  in  Campania. — D.  O. 


92  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  506-504 

number,  whom  they  had  received.  This  year  also  the  consuls 
celebrated  a  triumph  at  Rome. 

The  succeeding  consuls,  Opiter  Verginius  and  Spurius 
Cassius,  first  endeavoured  to  take  Pometia  by  storm,  and 
afterward  by  means  of  mantlets  1  and  other  works.  But  the 
Auruncans,  stirred  up  against  them  more  by  an  irreconcilable 
hatred  than  induced  by  any  hopes  of  success,  or  by  a  favour- 
able opportunity,  having  sallied  forth,  more  of  them  armed 
with  lighted  torches  than  swords,  filled  all  places  with  fire 
and  slaughter.  Having  fired  the  mantlets,  slain  and  wounded 
many  of  the  enemy,  they  almost  succeeded  in  slaying  one  of 
the  consuls,  who  had  been  thrown  from  his  horse  and  severely 
wounded:  which  of  them  it  was,  authorities  do  not  mention. 
Upon  this  the  Romans  returned  to  the  city  unsuccessful:  the 
consul  was  taken  back  with  many  more  wounded,  with  doubt- 
ful hope  of  his  recovery.  After  a  short  interval,  sufficient 
for  attending  to  their  wounds  and  recruiting  their  army,  they 
attacked  Pometia  with  greater  fury  and  increased  strength. 
When,  after  the  mantlets  and  the  other  military  works  had 
been  repaired,  the  soldiers  were  on  the  point  of  mounting  the 
walls,  the  town  surrendered.  Yet,  though  the  town  had  sur- 
rendered, the  Auruncans  were  treated  with  no  less  cruelty 
than  if  it  had  been  taken  by  assault:  the  chief  men  were  be- 
headed: the  rest,  who  were  colonists,  were  sold  by  auction, 
the  town  was  razed,  and  the  land  sold.  The  consuls  obtained 
a  triumph  more  from  having  violently  gratified  their2  resent- 
ment than  in  consequence  of  the  importance  of  the  war  thus 
concluded. 

In  the  following  year  Postumus  Cominius  and  Titus  Lar- 
cius  were  consuls.  In  that  year,  during  the  celebration  of  the 
games  at  Rome,  as  some  courtesans  were  being  carried  off 
by  some  of  the  Sabine  youth  in  wanton  frolic,  a  cfowd  assem- 
bled, a  quarrel  ensued,  and  almost  a  battle:  and  in  conse- 
quence of  this  trifling  occurrence  the  whole  affair  seemed  to 
point  to  a  renewal  of  hostilities,  which  inspired  even  more 
apprehension  than  a  Latin  war.  Their  fears  were  further  in- 
creased, because  it  was  known  for  certain  that  thirty  different 
states  had  already  entered  into  a  confederacy  against  them, 
at  the  instigation  of  Octavius  Mamilius.  While  the  state  was 
troubled  during  the  expectation  of  such  important  events,  the 
idea  of  nominating  a  dictator  was  mentioned  for  the  first  time. 

1  Wooden  roofs  covered  with  earth  or  wet  hides,  and  rolled  forward  on 
wheels  for  the  protection  of  those  engaged  in  battering  or  mining  the 
walls. — D.  O. 

*  That  is,  the  Romans'. 


B.  C.  504-502]       DICTATOR    FIRST   APPOINTED  93 

But  in  what  year,  or  who  the  consuls  were  in  whom  con- 
fidence was  not  reposed,  because  they  belonged  to  the  party 
of  the  Tarquins — for  that  also  is  reported — or  who  was  elected 
dictator  for  the  first  time,  is  not  satisfactorily  established. 
Among  the  oldest  authorities,  however,  I  find  that  Titus 
Larcius  was  appointed  the  first  dictator,  and  Spurius  Cassius 
master  of  the  horse.  They  chose  men  of  consular  dignity: 
so  the  law,  that  was  passed  for  the  election  of  a  dictator,  or- 
dained. For  this  reason,  I  am  more  inclined  to  believe  that 
Larcius,  who  was  of  consular  rank,  was  attached  to  the  con- 
suls as  their  director  and  superior,  rather  than  Manius  Va- 
lerius, the  son  of  Marcus  and  grandson  of  Volesus,  who  had 
not  yet  been  consul.  Moreover,  had  they  intended  a  dic- 
tator to  be  chosen  from  that  family  under  any  circumstances, 
they  would  much  rather  have  chosen  his  father,  Marcus 
Valerius,  a  man  of  consular  rank,  and  of  approved  merit. 
On  the  first  creation  of  the  dictator  at  Rome,  when  they  saw 
the  axes  carried  before  him,  great  awe  came  upon  the  people,1 
so  that  they  became  more  attentive  to  obey  orders.  For  nei- 
ther, as  was  the  case  under  the  consuls,  who  possessed  equal 
power,  could  the  assistance  of  one  of  them  be  invoked,  nor 
was  there  any  appeal,  nor  any  chance  of  redress  but  in  atten- 
tive submission.  The  creation  of  a  dictator  at  Rome  also 
terrified  the  Sabines,  and  the  more  so  because  they  thought 
he  was  created  on  their  account.  Accordingly,  they  sent  am- 
bassadors to  treat  concerning  peace.  To  these,  when  they 
earnestly  entreated  the  dictator  and  senate  to  pardon  a  youth- 
ful offence,  the  answer  was  given,  that  the  young  men  might 
be  forgiven,  but  not  the  old,  seeing  that  they  were  continually 
stirring  up  one  war  after  another.  Nevertheless  they  con- 
tinued to  treat  about  peace,  which  would  have  been  granted, 
if  the  Sabines  had  brought  themselves  to  make  good  the  ex- 
penses incurred  during  the  war,  as  was  demanded.  War  was 
proclaimed;  a  truce,  however,  with  the  tacit  consent  of  both 
parties,  preserved  peace  throughout  the  year. 

Servius  Sulpicius  and  Manius  Tullius  were  consuls  the 
next  year:  nothing  worth  mentioning  happened.  Titus  yEbu- 
tius  and  Gaius  Vetusius  succeeded.  In  their  consulship 
Fidenae  was  besieged,  Crustumeria  taken,  and  Praeneste*  re- 
volted from  the  Latins  to  the  Romans.  Nor  was  the  Latin 
war,  which  had  now  been  fomenting  for  several  years,  any 

1  Perhaps  because  the  twenty-four  axes  of  both  consuls  went  to  the 
dictator. — D.  O. 
*  Now  Palestrina. 


94 


LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  501-499 


longer  deferred.  Aulus  Postumius  the  dictator,  and  Titus 
^Ebutius  his  master  of  the  horse,  setting  out  with  a  numerous 
army  of  horse  and  foot,  met  the  enemy's  forces  at  the  Lake 
Regillus,1  in  the  territory  of  Tusculum,  and,  because  it  was 
rumoured  that  the  Tarquins  were  in  the  army  of  the  Latins, 
their  rage  could  not  be  restrained,  so  that  they  immediately 
came  to  an  engagement.  Accordingly,  the  battle  was  con- 
siderably more  severe  and  fierce  than  others.  For  the  gen- 
erals were  present  not  only  to  direct  matters  by  their  instruc- 
tions, but,  exposing  their  own  persons,  they  met  in  combat. 
And  there  was  hardly  one  of  the  principal  officers  of  either 
army  who  came  off  unwounded,  except  the  Roman  dictator. 
As  Postumius  was  encouraging  his  men  in  the  first  line,  and 
drawing  them  up  in  order,  Tarquinius  Superbus,  though  now 
advanced  in  years  and  enfeebled,  urged  on  his  horse  to  at- 
tack him:  and,  being  wounded  in  the  side,  he  was  carried  off 
by  a  party  of  his  men  to  a  place  of  safety.  In  like  manner, 
on  the  other  wing,  yEbutius,  master  of  the  horse,  had  charged 
Octavius  Mamilius;  nor  was  his  approach  unobserved  by  the 
Etruscan  general,  who  in  like  manner  spurred  his  horse 
against  him.  And  such  was  their  impetuosity  as  they  ad- 
vanced with  lances  couched,  that  ^Ebutius  was  pierced 
through  the  arm  and  Mamilius  run  through  the  breast.  The 
Latins  received  the  latter  into  their  second  line;  ^Ebutius, 
as  he  was  unable  to  wield  his  lance  with  his  wounded  arm, 
retired  from  the  battle.  The  Latin  general,  no  way  discour- 
aged by  his  wound,  stirred  up  the  fight:  and,  because  he  saw 
that  his  own  men  were  disheartened,  sent  for  a  company  of 
Roman  exiles,  commanded  by  the  son  of  Lucius  Tarquinius. 
This  body,  inasmuch  as  they  fought  with  greater  fury,  owing 
to  the  loss  of  their  country,  and  the  seizure  of  their  estates, 
for  a  while  revived  the  battle. 

When  the  Romans  were  now  beginning  to  give  ground  in 
that  quarter,  Marcus  Valerius,  brother  of  Publicola,  having 
observed  young  Tarquin  boldly  parading  himself  at  the  head 
of  his  exiles,  fired  besides  with  the  renown  of  his  house,  that 
the  family,  which  had  gained  glory  by  having  expelled  the 
kings,  might  also  have  the  glory  of  destroying  them,  put 
spurs  to  his  horse,  and  with  his  javelin  couched  made  toward 
Tarquin.  Tarquin  retreated  before  his  infuriated  foe  to  a 
battalion  of  his  own  men.  As  Valerius  rode  rashly  into  the 
line  of  the  exiles,  one  of  them  attacked  him  and  ran  him  side- 
ways through  the  body,  and  as  the  horse  was  in  no  way  im- 
peded by  the  wound  of  his  rider,  the  Roman  sank  to  the 
1  See  Macaulay's  "  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome  "  :  The  Battle  of  Lake  Regillus. 


B.C.  499-496]      BATTLE  OF  LAKE  REGILLUS  95 

ground  expiring,  with  his  arms  falling  over  his  body.  Pos- 
tumius  the  dictator,  seeing  the  fall  of  so  distinguished  a  man, 
and  that  the  exiles  were  advancing  boldly  at  a  run,  and  his 
own  men  disheartened  and  giving  ground,  gave  the  signal 
to  his  own  cohort,  a  chosen  body  of  men  which  he  kept  for  the 
defence  of  his  person,  to  treat  every  Roman  soldier,  whom 
they  saw  fleeing  from  the  battle,  as  an  enemy.  Upon  this  the 
Romans,  in  fear  of  the  danger  on  both  sides,  turned  from 
flight  and  attacked  the  enemy,  and  the  battle  was  restored. 
The  dictator's  cohort  then  for  the  first  time  engaged  in  the 
fight,  and  with  persons  and  courage  unimpaired,  fell  on  the 
wearied  exiles,  and  cut  them  to  pieces.  There  another  en- 
gagement took  place  between  the  leading  officers.  The  Latin 
general,  on  seeing  the  cohort  of  the  exiles  almost  surrounded 
by  the  Roman  dictator,  hurried  up  some  companies  of  re- 
serves to  the  front.  Titus  Herminius,  a  lieutenant-general, 
seeing  them  advancing  in  a  body,  and  recognising  Mamilius, 
distinguished  among  them  by  his  armour  and  dress,  encoun- 
tered the  leader  of  the  enemy  with  violence  so  much  greater 
than  the  master  of  the  horse  had  shown  a  little  before,  that 
at  one  thrust  he  ran  him  through  the  side  and  slew  him.  While 
stripping  the  body  of  his  enemy,  he  himself  received  a  wound 
with  a  javelin,  and,  though  brought  back  to  the  camp  victori- 
ous, died  while  it  was  being  dressed.  Then  the  dictator  hur- 
ried up  to  the  cavalry,  entreating  them,  as  the  infantry  were 
tired  out,  to  dismount  and  take  up  the  fight.  They  obeyed 
his  orders,  dismounted,  flew  to  the  front,  and,  taking  the  place 
of  the  first  line,  covered  themselves  with  their  targets.  The 
infantry  immediately  recovered  their  courage  when  they  saw 
the  young  nobles  sustaining  a  share  of  the  danger  with  them, 
the  mode  of  fighting  being  now  the  same  for  all.  Then  at 
length  the  Latins  were  beaten  back,  and  their  line,  disheart- 
ened, gave  way.  The  horses  were  then  brought  up  to  the 
cavalry,  that  they  might  pursue  the  enemy:  the  infantry  like- 
wise followed.  Thereupon  the  dictator,  disregarding  nothing 
that  held  out  hope  of  divine  or  human  aid,  is  said  to  have 
vowed  a  temple  to  Castor,  and  to  have  promised  rewards  to 
the  first  and  second  of  the  soldiers  who  should  enter  the  ene- 
my's camp.  Such  was  the  ardour  of  the  Romans  that  they 
took  the  camp  with  the  same  impetuosity  wherewith  they  had 
routed  the  enemy  in  the  field.  Such  was  the  engagement  at 
the  Lake  Regillus.1  The  dictator  and  master  of  the  horse  re- 
turned to  the  city  in  triumph. 

1  The  details  of  Macaulay's  story  in  his  "  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome,"  that 
both  Castor  and  Pollux  appeared  mounted  on  white  horses  and,  after  de- 


96  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.495 

For  the  next  three  years  there  was  neither  settled  peace 
nor  open  war.  The  consuls  were  Quintus  Cloelius  and  Titus 
Larcius :  they  were  succeeded  by  Aulus  Sempronius  and  Mar- 
cus Minucius.  During  their  consulship  a  temple  was  dedi- 
cated to  Saturn,  and  the  Saturnalia  1  appointed  to  be  kept  as 
a  day  of  festival.  Then  Aulus  Postumius  and  Titus  Verginius 
were  chosen  consuls.  In  some  authors  I  find  that  the  battle 
at  the  Lake  Regillus  was  not  fought  till  this  year,  and  that 
Aulus  Postumius,  because  the  fidelity  of  his  colleague  was 
suspected,  laid  down  his  office,  and  was  thereupon  created 
dictator.  Such  great  mistakes  about  dates  perplex  the  in- 
quirer, the  magistrates  being  arranged  differently  in  different 
writers,  that  one  can  neither  determine  the  order  of  succes- 
sion of  the  consuls,  nor  what  took  place  and  in  what  year,  by 
reason  of  the  great  antiquity,  not  only  of  the  facts,  but  also 
of  the  historians.  Then  Appius  Claudius  and  Publius  Ser- 
vilius  were  elected  consuls.  This  year  was  remarkable  for 
the  announcement  of  Tarquin's  death.  He  died  at  Cumae, 
whither  he  had  betaken  himself  to  the  tyrant  Aristodemus, 
after  the  power  of  the  Latins  had  been  broken.  The  senate 
and  people  were  elated  by  this  news.  But  in  the  case  of  the 
senators  their  satisfaction  was  too  extravagant,  for  oppression 
began  to  be  practised  by  the  chief  among  them  upon  the 
people,  to  whom  they  had  up  to  that  day  paid  court  to  the 
utmost  of  their  power.  The  same  year  the  colony  of  Signia, 
which  King  Tarquin  had  sent  out,  was  recruited  by  filling  up 
the  number  of  the  colonists,  and  a  second  colony  sent  out. 
The  tribes  at  Rome  were  increased  to  twenty-one.  A  temple 
of  Mercury  2  was  dedicated  on  the  fifteenth  of  May. 

During  the  Latin  war  there  had  been  neither  peace  nor 
war  with  the  nation  of  the  Volscians ; 3  for  both  the  Volscians 
had  raised  auxiliary  troops  to  send  to  the  Latins,  and  they 
would  have  been  sent  had  not  despatch  been  used  by  the 
Roman  dictator — the  reason  for  such  despatch  on  his  part 
being,  that  he  might  not  have  to  contend  in  one  and  the  same 
battle  with  both  Latins  and  Volscians.  Resenting  this,  the 
consuls  marched  their  army  into  the  Volscian  territory;  this 

tiding  the  victory,  rode  to  Rome  and  announced  it,  are  taken  from  Dio- 
nysius. — D.  O. 

1  It  took  place  toward  the  end  of  December.  Slaves  were  relieved 
from  their  toils,  wore  their  masters'  clothes  and  the  pileus  or  cap  of  free- 
dom, were  granted  full  freedom  of  speech,  and  even  waited  on  by  their 
masters  at  the  banquet. — D.  O. 

1  Near  the  Circus  Maximus. 

1  These  inhabited  for  the  most  part  southern  Latium  between  the  ter- 
ritories of  the  Hernicans  and  the  Auruncans. — D.  O. 


B.C.  495]  TREATY  WITH   THE  LATINS  97 

unexpected  proceeding  alarmed  the  Volscians,  who  appre- 
hended no  chastisement  for  the  mere  intention;  without 
thought  of  arms,  they  gave  three  hundred  children  of  the  prin- 
cipal men  of  Cora  and  Pometia  *  as  hostages.  Upon  this  the 
legions  were  withdrawn  without  an  engagement.  Not  long 
after  the  Volscians,  freed  from  their  fears,  returned  to  their 
former  frame  of  mind:  they  again  made  secret  preparations 
for  war,  having  taken  the  Hernicans  into  an  offensive  alliance 
with  them.  They  also  sent  ambassadors  in  every  direction  to 
stir  up  Latium.  But,  on  account  of  the  defeat  recently  sus- 
tained at  the  Lake  Regillus,  the  Latins  could  scarcely  be  re- 
strained from  offering  violence  to  the  ambassadors,  through 
resentment  and  hatred  of  any  one  who  advised  them  to  take  up 
arms.  The  Volscians  were  seized  and  brought  to  Rome.  They 
were  there  delivered  up  to  the  consuls,  and  information  was 
given  that  the  Volscians  and  Hernicans2  were  making  prepara- 
tions for  war  against  the  Romans.  The  matter  being  reported 
to  the  senate,  it  was  so  gratifying  to  the  senators  that  they  both 
sent  back  six  thousand  prisoners  to  the  Latins,  and  referred 
to  the  new  magistrates  the  matter  of  the  treaty,  which  had 
been  almost  finally  refused  them.  Then  indeed  the  Latins 
were  heartily  glad  at  what  they  had  done:  the  advisers  of 
peace  were  held  in  high  esteem.  They  sent  a  crown  of  gold 
to  the  Capitol  as  an  offering  to  Jupiter.  Along  with  the  am- 
bassadors and  the  offering  came  a  great  crowd,  consisting 
of  the  prisoners  who  had  been  sent  back  to  their  friends. 
They  proceeded  to  the  houses  of  those  persons  with  whom 
they  had  severally  been  in  servitude,  and  returned  thanks  for 
having  been  generously  treated  and  cared  for  during  their 
misfortune,  and  afterward  entered  into  treaties  of  hospitality. 
Never  at  any  former  time  was  the  Latin  nation  more  closely 
united  to  the  Roman  state,  either  by  public  or  private  ties. 

Meanwhile  both  the  Volscian  war  was  threatening,  and 
the  state,  at  variance  with  itself,  was  inflamed  with  internal 
animosity  between  the  senate  and  people,  chiefly  on  account 
of  those  who  had  entered  into  an  obligation  for  debt.  They 
complained  loudly  that,  while  fighting  abroad  for  liberty  and 
dominion,  they  had  been  imprisoned  and  cruelly  treated  at 
home  by  their  fellow-citizens,  and  that  the  liberty  of  the 
people  was  more  secure  in  time  of  war  than  of  peace,  more 
secure  among  enemies  than  among  their  fellow-citizens.  This 
feeling  of  discontent,  increasing  of  itself,  was  still  further  ag- 

1  Apparently  these  cities  had  been  rebuilt. — D.  O. 

1  They  occupied  the  valley  of  the  Trerus  and  the  mountainous  region 
of  central  Latium  between  the  Volscians  and  ^Equans. — D.  O. 
7 


9g  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.495 

gravated  by  the  striking  sufferings  of  an  individual.  A  man 
advanced  in  years  rushed  into  the  forum  with  the  tokens  of  his 
utter  misery  upon  him.  His  clothes  were  covered  with  filth, 
his  personal  appearance  still  more  pitiable,  pale,  and  emaci- 
ated. In  addition,  a  long  beard  and  hair  gave  a  wild  look  to 
his  countenance.  Notwithstanding  his  wretched  appearance, 
however,  he  was  recognised,  and  people  said  that  he  had  been 
a  centurion,  and,  compassionating  him,  recounted  other  dis- 
tinctions that  he  had  gained  in  war:  he  himself  exhibited 
scars  on  his  breast  in  "front,  which  bore  witness  to  honourable 
battles  in  several  places.  When  they  repeatedly  inquired  the 
reason  of  his  plight,  and  wretched  appearance,  a  crowd  hav- 
ing now  gathered  round  him  almost  like  a  regular  assembly, 
he  said,  that,  while  serving  in  the  Sabine  war,  because  he  had 
not  only  been  deprived  of  the  produce  of  his  land  in  conse- 
quence of  the  depredations  of  the  enemy,  but  his  residence 
had  also  been  burned  down,  all  his  effects  pillaged,  his  cattle 
driven  off,  and  a  tax  imposed  on  him  at  a  time  when  it  pressed 
most  hardly  upon  him,  he  had  got  into  debt:  that  this  debt, 
increased  by  exorbitant  interest,  had  stripped  him  first  of  his 
father's  and  grandfather's  farm,  then  of  all  his  other  property; 
lastly  that,  like  a  wasting  sickness,  it  had  reached  his  person: 
that  he  had  been  dragged  by  his  creditor,  not  into  servitude, 
but  into  a  house  of  correction  and  a  place  of  torture.  He 
then  showed  his  back  disfigured  with  the  marks  of  recent 
scourging.  At  this  sight  and  these  words  a  great  uproar 
arose.  The  tumult  now  no  longer  confined  itself  to  the  forum, 
but  spread  everywhere  through  the  entire  city.  The  nexi,1 
both  those  who  were  imprisoned,  and  those  who  were  now 
at  liberty,  hurried  into  the  streets  from  all  quarters  and  im- 
plored the  protection  of  the  Quirites.  Nowhere  was  there 
lack  of  volunteers  to  join  the  disturbance.  They  ran  in  crowds 
through  all  the  streets,  from  all  points,  to  the  forum  with  loud 
shouts.  Such  of  the  senators  as  happened  to  be  in  the  forum 
fell  in  with  this  mob  at  great  peril  to  themselves  ;  and  it 
might  not  have  refrained  from  actual  violence  had  not  the 
consuls,  Publius  Servilius  and  Appius  Claudius,  hastily  inter- 
fered to  quell  the  disturbance.  The  multitude,  however,  turn- 
ing toward  them,  and  showing  their  chains  and  other  marks 
of  wretchedness,  said  that  they  deserved  all  this,2  mentioning, 
each  of  them,  in  reproachful  terms,  the  military  services  per- 
formed by  himself,  by  one  in  one  place,  by  another  in  an- 

1  The  bound  (by  the  law  of  debt),  from  nexo,  to  join  or  connect. — D.  O. 
1  That  is,  for  allowing  themselves  to  suffer  it  and  yet  fight  for  their 
oppressors. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  495]  REVOLT   OF   THE   DEBTORS  99 

other.  They  called  upon  them  with  menaces,  rather  than 
entreaties,  to  assemble  the  senate,  and  stood  round  the  senate- 
house  in  a  body,  determined  themselves  to  be  witnesses  and 
directors  of  the  public  resolves.  Very  few  of  the  senators, 
whom  chance  had  thrown  in  the  way,  were  got  together  by 
the  consuls;  fear  kept  the  rest  away  not  only  from  the  senate- 
house,  but  even  from  the  forum,  and  no  business  could  be 
transacted  owing  to  their  small  attendance.  Then  indeed  the 
people  began  to  think  they  were  being  tricked,  and  put  off: 
and  that  such  of  the  senators  as  absented  themselves  did  so 
not  through  accident  or  fear,  but  with  the  express  purpose 
of  obstructing  business:  that  the  consuls  themselves  were 
shuffling,  that  their  miseries  were  without  doubt  held  up  to 
ridicule.  Matters  had  now  almost  come  to  such  a  pass  that 
not  even  the  majesty  of  the  consuls  could  restrain  the  vio- 
lence of  the  people.  Wherefore,  uncertain  whether  they 
would  incur  greater  danger  by  staying  at  home,  or  venturing 
abroad,  they  at  length  came  into  the  senate;  but,  though 
the  house  was  now  by  this  time  full,  not  only  were  the  sena- 
tors unable  to  agree,  but  even  the  consuls  themselves.  Ap- 
pius,  a  man  of  violent  temperament,  thought  the  matter  ought 
to  be  settled  by  the  authority  of  the  consuls,  and  that,  if  one  or 
two  were  seized,  the  rest  would  keep  quiet.  Servilius,  more 
inclined  to  moderate  remedies,  thought  that,  while  their  minds 
were  in  this  state  of  excitement,  they  could  be  bent  with 
greater  ease  and  safety  than  they  could  be  broken. 

Meanwhile  an  alarm  of  a  more  serious  nature  presented 
itself.  Some  Latin  horse  came  full  speed  to  Rome,  with  the 
alarming  news  that  the  Volscians  were  marching  with  a  hos- 
tile army  to  besiege  the  city.  This  announcement — so  com- 
pletely had  discord  split  the  state  into  two — affected  the  sena- 
tors and  people  in  a  far  different  manner.  The  people  exulted 
with  joy,  and  said  that  the  gods  were  coming  to  take  venge- 
ance on  the  tyranny  of  the  patricians.  They  encouraged  one 
another  not  to  give  in  their  names,1  declaring  that  it  was 
better  that  all  should  perish  together  than  that  they  should 
perish  alone.  Let  the  patricians  serve  as  soldiers,  let  the  pa- 
tricians take  up  arms,  so  that  those  who  reaped  the  advantages 
of  war  should  also  undergo  its  dangers.  But  the  senate, 
dejected  and  confounded  by  the  double  alarm  they  felt,  in- 
spired both  by  their  own  countryman  and  by  the  enemy,  en- 
treated the  consul  Servilius,  whose  disposition  was  more  in- 
clined to  favour  the  people,  that  he  would  extricate  the  com- 
monwealth, beset  as  it  was  with  so  great  terrors.  Then  the 
1  For  military  service. 


I00  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  495 

consul,  having  dismissed  the  senate,  came  forward  into  the 
assembly.  There  he  declared  that  the  senate  were  solicitous 
that  the  interests  of  the  people  should  be  consulted:  but  that 
alarm  for  the  safety  of  the  whole  commonwealth  had  inter- 
rupted their  deliberation  regarding  that  portion  of  the  state, 
which,  though  indeed  the  largest  portion,  was  yet  only  a  por- 
tion: nor  could  they,  seeing  that  the  enemy  were  almost  at 
the  gates,  allow  anything  to  take  precedence  of  the  war:  nor, 
even  though  there  should  be  some  respite,  was  it  either  to  the 
credit  of  the  people  not  to  have  taken  up  arms  in  defence  of 
their  country  unless  they  first  received  pay,  nor  consistent 
with  the  dignity  of  the  senators  to  have  adopted  measures  of 
relief  for  the  distressed  fortunes  of  their  countrymen  through 
fear  rather  than  afterward  of  their  own  free  will.  He  then 
further  gave  his  speech  the  stamp  of  sincerity  by  an  edict,  by 
which  he  ordained  that  no  one  should  detain  a  Roman  citizen 
either  in  chains  or  in  prison,  so  that  he  would  thereby  be  de- 
prived of  the  opportunity  of  enrolling  his  name  under  the 
consuls,  and  that  no  one  should  either  take  possession  of  or 
sell  the  goods  of  any  soldier,  while  on  service,  or  detain  his 
children  or  grandchildren  in  custody  for  debt.  On  the  publi- 
cation of  this  edict,  both  the  debtors  who  were  present  im- 
mediately gave  in  their  names,  and  crowds  of  persons,  hasten- 
ing from  all  quarters  of  the  city  from  private  houses,  as  their 
creditors  had  no  right  to  detain  their  persons,  ran  together 
into  the  forum,  to  take  the  military  oath.  These  made  up  a 
considerable  body  of  men,  nor  did  any  others  exhibit  more 
conspicuous  bravery  or  activity  during  the  Volscian  war. 
The  consul  led  out  his  forces  against  the  enemy,  and  pitched 
his  camp  at  a  little  distance  from  them. 

The  next  night  the  Volscians,  relying  on  the  dissension 
among  the  Romans,  made  an  attempt  on  their  camp,  to  see 
if  there  were  any  chance  of  desertion  or  treachery  during 
the  night.  The  sentinels  on  guard  perceived  them:  the  army 
was  called  up,  and,  the  signals  being  given,  they  ran  to  arms. 
Thus  the  attempt  of  the  Volscians  was  frustrated ;  the  re- 
mainder of  the  night  was  given  up  to  repose  on  both  sides. 
The  next  morning  at  daybreak  the  Volscians,  having  filled 
the  trenches,  attacked  the  rampart.  And  already  the  fortifica- 
tions were  being  demolished  on  every  side,  when  the  consul, 
after  having  delayed  a  little  while  for  the  purpose  of  testing 
the  feelings  of  the  soldiers,  although  all  from  every  quarter, 
and  before  all  the  debtors,  were  crying  out  for  him  to  give  the 
signal,  at  length,  when  their  great  eagerness  became  unmis- 
takable, gave  the  signal  for  sallying  forth,  and  let  out  the  sol- 


B.  C.495]  DEFEAT  OF  THE   VOLSCIANS  IOI 

diery  impatient  for  the  fight.  At  the  very  first  onset  the  enemy 
were  routed;  the  fugitives  were  harassed  in  the  rear,  as  far 
as  the  infantry  were  able  to  follow  them:  the  cavalry  drove 
them  in  consternation  up  to  their  camp.  In  a  short  time  the 
legions  having  been  drawn  around  it,  the  camp  itself  was 
taken  and  plundered,  since  panic  had  driven  the  Volscians 
even  from  thence  also.  On  the  next  day  the  legions  were  led 
to  Suessa  Pometia,  whither  the  enemy  had  retreated.  In  a 
few  days  the  town  was  taken,  and,  after  being  taken,  was 
given  up  for  plunder,  whereby  the  needs  of  the  soldiers  were 
somewhat  relieved.  The  consul  led  back  his  victorious  army 
to  Rome  with  the  greatest  renown  to  himself.  On  his  de- 
parture for  Rome,  he  was  met  by  the  deputies  of  the  Ecetrans, 
a  tribe  of  the  Volscians,  who  were  alarmed  for  the  safety  of 
their  state  after  the  capture  of  Pometia.  By  a  decree  of  the 
senate  peace  was  granted  them,  but  they  were  deprived  of 
their  land. 

Immediately  after  this  the  Sabines  also  frightened  the 
Romans:  for  it  was  rather  an  alarm  than  a  war.  News  was 
brought  into  the  city  during  the  night  that  a  Sabine  army 
had  advanced  as  far  as  the  river  Anio,  plundering  the  coun- 
try: that  the  country  houses  there  were  being  pillaged  and 
set  fire  to  indiscriminately.  Aulus  Postumius,  who  had  been 
dictator  in  the  Latin  war,  was  immediately  sent  thither  with 
all  the  cavalry  forces.  The  consul  Servilius  followed  him  with 
a  picked  body  of  infantry.  The  cavalry  cut  off  most  of  the 
stragglers ;  nor  did  the  Sabine  legions  make  any  resistance 
against  the  battalion  of  infantry  when  it  came  up  with  them. 
Tired  both  by  their  march  and  nightly  raids,  surfeited  with 
eating  and  drinking  in  the  country  houses,  a  great  number  of 
them  had  scarcely  sufficient  strength  to  flee.  Thus  the  Sa- 
bine war  was  heard  of  and  finished  in  a  single  night.  On  the 
following  day,  when  all  were  sanguine  that  peace  had  been 
secured  in  every  quarter,  ambassadors  from  the  Auruncans 
presented  themselves  before  the  senate,  threatening  to  declare 
war  unless  the  troops  were  withdrawn  from  the  Volscian  terri- 
tory. The  army  of  the  Auruncans  had  set  out  from  home  at 
the  same  time  as  the  ambassadors,  and  the  report  that  this 
army  had  been  seen  not  far  from  Aricia  threw  the  Romans 
into  such  a  state  of  confusion  that  neither  could  the  senate 
be  consulted  in  regular  form,  nor  could  the  Romans,  while 
themselves  taking  up  arms,  give  a  pacific  answer  to  those 
who  were  advancing  to  attack  them.  They  marched  to  Aricia 
in  hostile  array,  engaged  with  the  Auruncans  not  far  from 
that  town,  and  in  one  battle  the  war  was  ended. 


,02  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  C.  495 

After  the  defeat  of  the  Auruncans,  the  people  of  Rome, 
victorious  in  so  many  wars  within  a  few  days,  were  looking 
to  the  consul  to  fulfil  his  promises,  and  to  the  senate  to  keep 
their  word,  when  Appius,  both  from  his  natural  pride,  and  in 
order  to  undermine  the  credit  of  his  colleague,  issued  a  decree 
concerning  borrowed  money  in  the  harshest  possible  terms. 
From  this  time,  both  those  who  had  been  formerly  in  con- 
finement were  delivered  up  to  their  creditors,  and  others  also 
were  taken  into  custody.  Whenever  this  happened  to  any 
soldier,  he  appealed  to  the  other  consul.  A  crowd  gathered 
about  Servilius:  they  threw  his  promises  in  his  teeth,  severally 
upbraiding  him  with  their  services  in  war,  and  the  scars  they 
had  received.  They  called  upon  him  either  to  lay  the  matter 
before  the  senate,  or,  as  consul,  to  assist  his  fellow-citizens, 
as  commander,  his  soldiers.  These  remonstrances  affected 
the  consul,  but  the  situation  of  affairs  obliged  him  to  act  in 
a  shuffling  manner:  so  completely  had  not  only  his  colleague, 
but  the  whole  of  the  patrician  party,  enthusiastically  taken 
up  the  opposite  cause.  And  thus,  by  playing  a  middle  part, 
he  neither  escaped  the  odium  of  the  people,  nor  gained  the 
favour  of  the  senators.  The  patricians  looked  upon  him  as 
wanting  in  energy  and  a  popularity-hunting  consul,  the  peo- 
ple, as  deceitful:  and  it  soon  became  evident  that  he  had  be- 
come as  unpopular  as  Appius  himself.  A  dispute  had  arisen 
between  the  consuls,  as  to  which  of  them  should  dedicate  the 
Temple  of  Mercury.  The  senate  referred  the  matter  from 
themselves  to  the  people,  and  ordained  that,  to  whichever 
of  them  the  task  of  dedication  should  be  intrusted  by  order 
of  the  people,  he  should  preside  over  the  markets,  establish 
a  guild  of  merchants,1  and  perform  the  ceremonies  in  presence 
of  the  Pontifex  Maximus.  The  people  intrusted  the  dedication 
of  the  temple  to  Marcus  Laetorius,  a  centurion  of  the  first 
rank,  which,  as  would  be  clear  to  all,  was  done  not  so  much 
out  of  respect  to  a  person  on  whom  an  office  above  his  rank 
had  been  conferred,  as  to  affront  the  consuls.  Upon  this  one 
of  the  consuls  particularly,  and  the  senators,  were  highly  in- 
censed: however,  the  people  had  gained  fresh  courage,  and 
proceeded  in  quite  a  different  manner  to  what  they  had  at 
first  intended.  For  when  they  despaired  of  redress  from  the 
consuls  and  senate,  whenever  they  saw  a  debtor  led  into  court, 
they  rushed  together  from  all  quarters.  Neither  could  the 
decree  of  the  consul  be  heard  distinctly  for  the  noise  and 
shouting,  nor,  when  he  had  pronounced  the  decree,  did  any 

1  Known  as  Mercuriales.     Mercury  was  the  patron  of  merchants. — 
D.  O. 


B.  C.  495-494]    RESIGNATION   OF   THE   CONSULS  103 

one  obey  it.  Violence  was  the  order  of  the  day,  and  appre- 
hension and  danger  in  regard  to  personal  liberty  was  entirely 
transferred  from  the  debtors  to  the  creditors,  who  were  indi- 
vidually maltreated  by  the  crowd  before  the  very  eyes  of  the 
consul.  In  addition,  the  dread  of  the  Sabine  war"  spread,  and 
when  a  levy  was  decreed,  nobody  gave  in  his  name:  Appius 
was  enraged,  and  bitterly  inveighed  against  the  self-seeking 
conduct  of  his  colleague,  in  that  he,  by  the  inactivity  he  dis- 
played to  win  the  favour  of  the  people,  was  betraying  the 
republic,  and,  besides  not  having  enforced  justice  in  the  mat- 
ter of  debt,  likewise  neglected  even  to  hold  a  levy,  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  decree  of  the  senate.  Yet  he  declared  that  the 
commonwealth  was  not  entirely  deserted,  nor  the  consular 
authority  altogether  degraded:  that  he,  alone  and  unaided, 
would  vindicate  both  his  own  dignity  and  that  of  the  senators. 
When  day  by  day  the  mob,  emboldened  by  license,  stood 
round  him,  he  commanded  a  noted  ringleader  of  the  seditious 
outbreaks  to  be  arrested.  He,  as  he  was  being  dragged  off  by 
the  lictors,  appealed  to  the  people;  nor  would  the  consul  have 
allowed  the  appeal,  because  there  was  no  doubt  regarding 
the  decision  of  the  people,  had  not  his  obstinacy  been  with 
difficulty  overcome,  rather  by  the  advice  and  influence  of  the 
leading  men,  than  by  the  clamours  of  the  people;  with  such 
a  superabundance  of  courage  was  he  endowed  to  support  the 
weight  of  public  odium.  The  evil  gained  ground  daily,  not 
only  by  open  clamours,  but,  what  was  far  more  dangerous, 
by  secession  and  by  secret  conferences.  At  length  the  con- 
suls, so  odious  to  the  commons,  resigned  office,  Servilius  liked 
by  neither  party,  Appius  highly  esteemed  by  the  senators. 

Then  Aulus  Verginius  and  Titus  Vetusius  entered  on  the 
consulship.  Upon  this  the  commons,  uncertain  what  sort 
of  consuls  they  were  likely  to  have,  held  nightly  meetings, 
some  of  them  upon  the  Esquiline,  and  others  upon  the  Aven- 
tine,  lest,  when  assembled  in  the  forum,  they  should  be  thrown 
into  confusion  by  being  obliged  to  adopt  hasty  resolutions, 
and  proceed  inconsiderately  and  at  hap-hazard.  The  consuls, 
judging  this  proceeding  to  be  of  dangerous  tendency,  as  it 
really  was,  laid  the  matter  before  the  senate.  But,  when  it 
was  laid  before  them,  they  could  not  get  them  to  consult  upon 
it  regularly;  it  was  received  with  an  uproar  on  all  sides,  and 
by  the  indignant  shouts  of  the  fathers,  at  the  thought  that  the 
consuls  threw  on  the  senate  the  odium  for  that  which  should 
have  been  carried  out  by  consular  authority.  Assuredly,  if 
there  were  real  magistrates  in  the  republic,  there  would  have 
been  no  council  at  Rome  but  a  public  one.  As  it  was,  the  re- 


I04  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.494 

public  was  divided  and  split  into  a  thousand  senate-houses 
and  assemblies,  some  meetings  being  held  on  the  Esquiline, 
others  on  the  Aventine.  One  man,  like  Appius  Claudius — for 
such  a  one  was  of  more  value  than  a  consul — would  have  dis- 
persed those  private  meetings  in  a  moment.  When  the  con- 
suls, thus  rebuked,  asked  them  what  it  was  that  they  desired 
them  to  do,  declaring  that  they  would  carry  it  out  with  as  much 
energy  and  vigour  as  the  senators  wished,  the  latter  issued  a 
decree  that  they  should  push  on  the  levy  as  briskly  as  possible, 
declaring  that  the  people  had  become  insolent  from  want  of 
employment.  When  the  senate  had  been  dismissed,  the  con- 
suls assembled  the  tribunal  and  summoned  the  younger  men 
by  name.  When  none  of  them  answered  to  his  name,  the 
people,  crowding  round  after  the  manner  of  a  general  assem- 
bly, declared  that  the  people  could  no  longer  be  imposed  on : 
that  they  should  never  enlist  one  single  soldier  unless  the 
engagement  made  publicly  with  the  people  were  fulfilled :  that 
liberty  must  be  restored  to  each  before  arms  should  be  given, 
that  so  they  might  fight  for  their  country  and  fellow-citizens, 
and  not  for  lords  and  masters.  The  consuls  understood  the 
orders  of  the  senate,  but  saw  none  of  those  who  talked  so  big 
within  the  walls  of  the  senate-house  present  themselves  to 
share  the  odium  they  would  incur.  In  fact,  a  desperate  con- 
test with  the  commons  seemed  at  hand.  Therefore,  before  they 
had  recourse  to  extremities,  they  thought  it  advisable  to  con- 
sult the  senate  a  second  time.  Then  indeed  all  the  younger 
senators  almost  flew  to  the  chairs  of  the  consuls,  commanding 
them  to  resign  the  consulate,  and  lay  aside  an  office  which 
they  lacked  the  courage  to  support. 

Both  plans  having  been  sufficiently  made  proof  of,  the  con- 
suls at  length  said:  "  Conscript  fathers,  that  you  may  not  say 
that  you  have  not  been  forewarned,  know  that  a  great  disturb- 
ance is  at  hand.  We  demand  that  those  who  accuse  us  most 
loudly  of  cowardice,  shall  assist  us  when  holding  the  levy;  we 
will  proceed  according  to  the  resolution  of  the  most  intrepid 
among  you,  since  it  so  pleases  you."  Returning  to  their  tri- 
bunal, they  purposely  commanded  one  of  the  leaders  of  the 
disturbance,  who  were  in  sight,  to  be  summoned  by  name. 
When  he  stood  without  saying  a  word,  and  a  number  of  men 
stood  round  him  in  a  ring,  to  prevent  violence  being  offered, 
the  consuls  sent  a  lictor  to  seize  him,  but  he  was  thrust  back 
by  the  people.  Then,  indeed,  those  of  the  fathers  who  at- 
tended the  consuls,  exclaiming  against  it  as  an  intolerable  in- 
sult, hurried  down  from  the  tribunal  to  assist  the  lictor.  But 
when  the  violence  of  the  people  was  turned  from  the  lictor, 


B.  c.  494]  CONTEST  WITH  THE  COMMONS  to$ 

who  had  merely  been  prevented  from  arresting  the  man, 
against  the  fathers,  the  riot  was  quelled  by  the  interposition  of 
the  consuls,  during  which,  however,  without  the  use  of  stones 
or  weapons,  there  was  more  noise  and  angry  words  than  actual 
injury  inflicted.  The  senate,  summoned  in  a  tumultuous  man- 
ner, was  consulted  in  a  manner  still  more  tumultuous,  those 
who  had  been  beaten  demanding  an  inquiry,  and  the  most  vio- 
lent of  them  attempting  to  carry  their  point,  not  so  much  by 
votes  as  by  clamour  and  bustle.  At  length,  when  their  passion 
had  subsided,  and  the  consuls  reproached  them  that  there  was 
no  more  presence  of  mind  in  the  senate  than  in  the  forum,  the 
matter  began  to  be  considered  in  order.  Three  different  opin- 
ions were  held.  Publius  Verginius  was  against  extending  re- 
lief to  all.  He  voted  that  they  should  consider  only  those  who, 
relying  on  the  promise  of  Publius  Servilius  the  consul,  had 
served  in  the  war  against  the  Volscians,  Auruncans,  and  Sa- 
bines.  Titus  Larcius  was  of  opinion,  that  it  was  not  now  a 
fitting  time  for  services  only  to  be  rewarded :  that  all  the  people 
were  overwhelmed  with  debt,  and  that  a  stop  could  not  be  put 
to  the  evil,  unless  measures  were  adopted  for  the  benefit  of  all : 
nay,  further,  if  the  condition  of  different  parties  were  different, 
discord  would  thereby  rather  be  inflamed  than  healed.  Ap- 
pius  Claudius,  being  naturally  of  a  hard  disposition,  and  fur- 
ther infuriated  by  the  hatred  of  the  commons  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  praises  of  the  senators  on  the  other,  insisted  that  such 
frequent  riots  were  caused  not  by  distress,  but  by  too  much 
freedom :  that  the  people  were  rather  insolent  than  violent : 
that  this  mischief,  in  fact,  took  its  rise  from  the  right  of  appeal ; 
since  threats,  not  authority,  was  all  that  remained  to  the  con- 
suls, while  permission  was  given  to  appeal  to  those  who  were 
accomplices  in  the  crime.  "  Come,"  added  he,  "  let  us  create 
a  dictator  from  whom  there  lies  no  appeal,  and  this  madness, 
which  has  set  everything  ablaze,  will  immediately  subside. 
Then  let  me  see  the  man  who  will  dare  to  strike  a  lictor,  when 
he  shall  know  that  that  person,  whose  authority  he  has  in- 
sulted, has  sole  and  absolute  power  to  flog  and  behead  him." 

To  many  the  opinion  of  Appius  appeared,  as  in  fact  it  was, 
harsh  and  severe.  On  the  other  hand,  the  proposals  of  Ver- 
ginius and  Larcius  appeared  injurious,  from  the  precedent 
they  established:  that  of  Larcius  they  considered  especially 
so,  as  one  that  would  destroy  all  credit.  The  advice  of  Ver- 
ginius was  reckoned  to  be  most  moderate,  and  a  happy  me- 
dium between  the  other  two.  But  through  party  spirit  and 
men's  regard  for  their  private  interest,  which  always  has 
and  always  will  stand  in  the  way  of  public  councils,  Appius 


I06  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.494 

prevailed,  and  was  himself  near  being  created  dictator — a  step 
which  would  certainly  have  alienated  the  commons  at  a  most 
dangerous  juncture,  when  the  Volscians,  the  ^quans,  and  the 
Sabines  all  happened  to  be  in  arms  at  the  same  time.  But 
the  consuls  and  elders  of  the  senate  took  care  that  this  com- 
mand, in  its  own  nature  uncontrollable,  should  be  intrusted  to 
a  man  of  mild  disposition.  They  elected  Marcus  Valerius, 
son  of  Volesus,  dictator.  The  people,  though  they  saw  that 
this  magistrate  was  appointed  against  themselves,  yet,  as  they 
possessed  the  right  of  appeal  by  his  brother's  law,  had  nothing 
harsh  or  tyrannical  to  fear  from  that  family.  Afterward  an 
edict  published  by  the  dictator,  which  was  almost  identical  in 
terms  with  that  of  the  consul  Servilius,  further  inspirited  them. 
But,  thinking  reliance  could  be  more  safely  placed  both  in  the 
man  and  in  his  authority,1  they  abandoned  the  struggle  and 
gave  in  their  names.  Ten  legions  were  raised,  a  larger  army 
than  had  ever  been  raised  before.2  Of  these,  each  of  the  con- 
suls had  three  legions  assigned  him;  the  dictator  commanded 
four. 

The  war  could  not  now  be  any  longer  deferred.  The 
^Equans  had  invaded  the  territory  of  the  Latins:  the  depu- 
ties of  the  latter  begged  the  senate  either  to  send  them  assist- 
ance, or  to  allow  them  to  arm  themselves  for  the  purpose  of 
defending  their  own  frontiers.  It  seemed  safer  that  the  Latins 
should  be  defended  without  their  being  armed,  than  to  allow 
them  to  handle  arms  again.  Vetusius  the  consul  was  sent  to 
their  assistance:  thereby  a  stop  was  put  to  the  raids.  The 
vEquans  retired  from  the  plains,  and  depending  more  on  the 
advantages  of  position  than  on  their  arms,  secured  themselves 
on  the  heights  of  the  mountains.  The  other  consul,  having 
set  out  against  the  Volscians,  lest  he  in  like  manner  might 
waste  time,3  provoked  the  enemy  to  pitch  their  camp  nearer, 
and  to  risk  a  regular  engagement,  by  ravaging  their  lands. 
Both  armies  stood  ready  to  advance,  in  front  of  their  lines,  in 
hostile  array,  in  a  plain  between  the  two  camps.  The  Vol- 
scians had  considerably  the  advantage  in  numbers:  accord- 
ingly, they  entered  into  battle  in  loose  order,  and  in  a  spirit 
of  contempt.  The  Roman  consul  neither  advanced  his  forces, 
nor  allowed  the  enemy's  shouts  to  be  returned,  but  ordered  his 
men  to  stand  with  their  spears  fixed  in  the  ground,  and  when- 

1  That  is,  over  the  senate. — D.  O. 

*  About  40,000  men. — D.  O. 

*  That  is,  like  Vetusius,  watching  the  ^Equans,  who  uncrippled  were 
lying  in  their  mountain  fastnesses  in  northern  Latium,  waiting  a  chance 
to  renew  their  ravages. — D.  O. 


B.C.494]    DEFEAT  OF  THE  VOLSCIANS  AND  SABINES    107 

ever  the  enemy  came  to  a  hand-to-hand  encounter,  to  draw 
their  swords,  and  attacking  them  with  all  their  force,  to  carry 
on  the  fight.  The  Volscians,  wearied  with  running  and  shout- 
ing, attacked  the  Romans,  who  appeared  to  them  paralyzed 
with  fear;  but  when  they  perceived  the  vigorous  resistance 
that  was  made,  and  saw  the  swords  glittering  before  their  eyes, 
just  as  if  they  had  fallen  into  an  ambuscade,  they  turned  and 
fled  in  confusion.  Nor  had  they  sufficient  strength  even  to 
flee,  as  they  had  entered  into  action  at  full  speed.  The  Ro- 
mans, on  the  other  hand,  as  they  had  quietly  stood  their 
ground  at  the  beginning  of  the  action,  with  physical  vigour 
unimpaired,  easily  overtook  the  weary  foe,  took  their  camp 
by  assault,  and,  having  driven  them  from  it,  pursued  them  to 
Velitrae,1  into  which  city  conquered  and  conquerors  together 
rushed  in  one  body.  By  the  promiscuous  slaughter  of  all 
ranks,  which  there  ensued,  more  blood  was  shed  than  in  the 
battle  itself.  Quarter  was  given  to  a  few,  who  threw  down 
their  arms  and  surrendered. 

While  these  operations  were  going  on  among  the  Vol- 
scians, the  dictator  routed  the  Sabines,  among  whom  by  far 
the  most  important  operations  of  the  war  were  carried  on,  put 
them  to  flight,  and  stripped  them  of  their  camp.  By  a  charge 
of  cavalry  he  had  thrown  the  centre  of  the  enemy's  line  into 
confusion,  in  the  part  where,  owing  to  the  wings  being  ex- 
tended too  widely,  they  had  not  properly  strengthened  their 
line  with  companies  in  the  centre.  The  infantry  fell  upon 
them  in  their  confusion:  by  one  and  the  same  charge  the 
camp  was  taken  and  the  war  concluded.  There  was  no  other 
battle  in  those  times  more  memorable  than  this  since  the  ac- 
tion at  the  Lake  Regillus.  The  dictator  rode  into  the  city  in 
triumph.  Besides  the  usual  honours,  a  place  in  the  circus  was 
assigned  to  him  and  his  descendants,  to  see  the  public  games : 
a  curule  chair  2  was  fixed  in  that  place.  The  territory  of  Ve- 
litrae was  taken  from  the  conquered  Volscians:  colonists  were 
sent  from  Rome  to  Velitrae,  and  a  colony  led  out  thither. 
Some  considerable  time  afterward  an  engagement  with  the 
^Equans  took  place,  but  against  the  wish  of  the  consul,  be- 
cause they  had  to  approach  the  enemy  on  unfavourable 
ground:  the  soldiers,  however,  complaining  that  the  affair 
was  being  purposely  protracted,  in  order  that  the  dictator 
might  resign  his  office  before  they  themselves  returned  to 
the  city,  and  so  his  promises  might  come  to  nothing,  like 

1  Modern  Velletri. 

1  A  chair-shaped  H.     Its  use  was  an  insignia  first  of  royalty,  then  of 
the  higher  magistracies. — D.  O. 


I0g  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  494 

those  of  the  consul  before,  forced  him  at  all  hazards  to  march 
his  army  up  the  hills.  This  imprudent  step,  through  the  cow- 
ardice of  the  enemy,  turned  out  successful :  for,  before  the  Ro- 
mans came  within  range,  the  ^Equans,  amazed  at  their  bold- 
ness, abandoned  their  camp,  which  they  had  pitched  in  a  very 
strong  position,  and  ran  down  into  the  valleys  that  lay  behind 
them.  There  abundant  plunder  was  found :  the  victory  was 
a  bloodless  one.  While  military  operations  had  thus  proved 
successful  in  three  quarters,  neither  senators  nor  people  had 
dismissed  their  anxiety  in  regard  to  the  issue  of  domestic 
questions.  With  such  powerful  influence  and  such  skill  had 
the  usurers  made  arrangements,  so  as  to  disappoint  not  only 
the  people,  but  even  the  dictator  himself.  For  Valerius,  after 
the  return  of  the  consul  Vetusius,  of  all  the  measures  brought 
before  the  senate,  made  that  on  behalf  of  the  victorious  people 
the  first,  and  put  the  question,  what  it  was  their  pleasure 
should  be  done  with  respect  to  the  debtors.  And  when  his 
report  was  disallowed,  he  said :  "  As  a  supporter  of  reconcilia- 
tion, I  am  not  approved  of.  You  will  ere  long  wish,  depend 
on  it,  that  the  commons  of  Rome  had  supporters  like  myself. 
For  my  part,  I  will  neither  further  disappoint  my  fellow-citi- 
zens, nor  will  I  be  dictator  to  no  purpose.  Intestine  dissessions 
and  foreign  wars  have  caused  the  republic  to  stand  in  need  of 
such  a  magistrate.  Peace  has  been  secured  abroad,  it  is  im- 
peded at  home.  I  will  be  a  witness  to  the  disturbance  as  a 
private  citizen  rather  than  as  dictator."  Accordingly,  quit- 
ting the  senate-house,  he  resigned  his  dictatorship.  The  rea- 
son was  clear  to  the  people :  that  he  had  resigned  his  office 
from  indignation  at  their  treatment.  Accordingly,  as  if  his 
promise  had  been  fully  kept,  since  it  had  not  been  his  fault 
that  his  word  had  not  been  made  good,  they  escorted  him  on 
his  return  home  with  favouring  shouts  of  acclamation. 

Fear  then  seized  the  senators  lest,  if  the  army  were  dis- 
banded, secret  meetings  and  conspiracies  would  be  renewed; 
accordingly,  although  the  levy  had  been  held  by  the  dictator, 
yet,  supposing  that,  as  they  had  sworn  obedience  to  the  con- 
suls, the  soldiers  were  bound  by  their  oath,  they  ordered  the 
legions  to  be  led  out  of  the  city,  under  the  pretext  of  hostili- 
ties having  been  renewed  by  the  ^quans.  By  this  course  of 
action  the  sedition  was  accelerated.  And  indeed  it  is  said  that 
it  was  at  first  contemplated  to  put  the  consuls  to  death,  that 
the  legions  might  be  discharged  from  their  oath:  but  that, 
being  afterward  informed  that  no  religious  obligation  could 
be  rendered  void  by  a  criminal  act,  they,  by  the  advice  of  one 
Sicinius,  retired,  without  the  orders  of  the  consuls,  to  the 


B.C.  494]        THE   SECESSION   OF  THE   COMMONS  169 

Sacred  Mount,1  beyond  the  river  Anio,  three  miles  from  the 
city:  this  account  is  more  commonly  adopted  than  that  which 
Piso  2  has  given,  that  the  secession  was  made  to  the  Aventine. 
There,  without  any  leader,  their  camp  being  fortified  with  a 
rampart  and  trench,  remaining  quiet,  taking  nothing  but  what 
was  necessary  for  subsistence,  they  remained  for  several  days, 
neither  molested  nor  molesting.  Great  was  the  panic  in  the 
city,  and  through  mutual  fear  all  was  in  suspense.  The  peo- 
ple, left  by  their  fellows  in  the  city,  dreaded  the  violence  of  the 
senators :  the  senators  dreaded  the  people  who  remained  in  the 
city,  not  feeling  sure  whether  they  preferred  them  to  stay  or 
depart.  On  the  other  hand,  how  long  would  the  multitude 
which  had  seceded,  remain  quiet?  what  would  be  the  conse- 
quences hereafter,  if,  in  the  meantime,  any  foreign  war  should 
break  out?  they  certainly  considered  there  was  no  hope  left, 
save  in  the  concord  of  the  citizens:  that  this  must  be  restored 
to  the  state  at  any  price.  Under  these  circumstances  it  was 
resolved  that  Agrippa  Menenius,  an  eloquent  man,  and  a  fa- 
vourite with  the  people,  because  he  was  sprung  from  them, 
should  be  sent  to  negotiate  with  them.  Being  admitted  into 
the  camp,  he  is  said  to  have  simply  related  to  them  the  fol- 
lowing story  in  an  old-fashioned  and  unpolished  style :  "  At 
the  time  when  the  parts  of  the  human  body  did  not,  as  now, 
all  agree  together,  but  the  several  members  had  each  their  own 
counsel,  and  their  own  language,  the  other  parts  were  indig- 
nant that,  while  everything  was  provided  for  the  gratification 
of  the  belly  by  their  labour  and  service,  the  belly,  resting  calm- 
ly in  their  midst,  did  nothing  but  enjoy  the  pleasures  afforded 
it.  They  accordingly  entered  into  a  conspiracy,  that  neither 
should  the  hands  convey  food  to  the  mouth,  nor  the  mouth 
receive  it  when  presented,  nor  the  teeth  have  anything  to 
chew:  while  desiring,  under  the  influence  of  this  indignation, 
to  starve  out  the  belly,  the  individual  members  themselves  and 
the  entire  body  were  reduced  to  the  last  degree  of  emaciation. 
Thence  it  became  apparent  that  the  office  of  the  belly  as  well 
was  no  idle  one ;  that  it  did  not  receive  more  nourishment 
than  it  supplied,  sending,  as  it  did,  to  all  parts  of  the  body  that 
blood  from  which  we  derive  life  and  vigour,  distributed  equally 
through  the  veins  when  perfected  by  the  digestion  of  the 
food."  8  By  drawing  a  comparison  from  this,  how  like  was 

1  Supposed  to  be  the  hill  beyond  and  to  the  right  of  the  Ponte  Nomen- 
tano. — D.  O. 

1  Lucius  Calpurnius  Piso,  the  historian. 

*  This  fable  is  of  very  great  antiquity.  Max  Miiller  says  it  is  found 
among  the  Hindus. 


HO  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  C.  494-493 

the  internal  sedition  of  the  body  to  the  resentment  of  the  peo- 
ple against  the  senators,  he  succeeded  in  persuading  the  minds 
of  the  multitude. 

Then  the  question  of  reconciliation  began  to  be  discussed, 
and  a  compromise  was  effected  on  certain  conditions :  that 
the  commons  should  have  magistrates  of  their  own,  whose 
persons  should  be  inviolable,  who  should  have  the  power  of 
rendering  assistance  against  the  consuls,  and  that  no  patrician 
should  be  permitted  to  hold  that  office.  Accordingly,  two 
tribunes  of  the  commons  were  created,  Gaius  Licinius  and 
Lucius  Albinus.  These  created  three  colleagues  for  them- 
selves. It  is  clear  that  among  these  was  Sicinius,  the  ring- 
leader of  the  sedition ;  with  respect  to  the  other  two,  there  is 
less  agreement  who  they  were.  There  are  some  who  say 
that  only  two  tribunes  were  elected  on  the  Sacred  Mount,  and 
that  there  the  lex  sacrata  1  was  passed. 

During  the  secession  of  the  commons,  Spurius  Cassius  and 
Postumus  Cominius  entered  on  the  consulship.  During  their 
consulate,  a  treaty  was  concluded  with  the  Latin  states.  To 
ratify  this,  one  of  the  consuls  remained  at  Rome :  the  other, 
who  was  sent  to  take  command  in  the  Volscian  war,  routed 
and  put  to  flight  the  Volscians  of  Antium,2  and  pursuing  them 
till  they  had  been  driven  into  the  town  of  Longula,  took 
possession  of  the  walls.  Next  he  took  Polusca,  also  a  city  of 
the  Volscians :  he  then  attacked  Corioli 3  with  great  violence. 
There  was  at  that  time  in  the  camp,  among  the  young  nobles, 
Gnaeus  Marcius,  a  youth  distinguished  .both  for  intelligence 
and  courage,  who  was  afterward  surnamed  Coriolanus. 
While  the  Roman  army  was  besieging  Corioli,  devoting  all  its 
attention  to  the  townspeople,  who  were  kept  shut  up  within 
the  walls,  and  there  was  no  apprehension  of  attack  threaten- 
ing from  without,  the  Volscian  legions,  setting  out  from  An- 
tium, suddenly  attacked  them,  and  the  enemy  sallied  forth  at 
the  same  time  from  the  town.  Marcius  at  that  time  happened 
to  be  on  guard.  He,  with  a  chosen  body  of  men,  not  only 
beat  back  the  attack  of  those  who  had  sallied  forth,  but  boldly 
rushed  in  through  the  open  gate,  and,  having  cut  down  all 
who  were  in  the  part  of  the  city  nearest  to  it,  and  hastily  seized 
some  blazing  torches,  threw  them  into  the  houses  adjoining 
the  wall.  Upon  this,  the  shouts  of  the  townsmen,  mingled 
with  the  wailings  of  the  women  and  children  occasioned  at  first 

1  The  law  which  declared  the  persons  of  the  tribunes  inviolate,  and  him 
who  transgressed  it  accursed. — D.  O. 

*  Modern  Anzio,  south  of  Ostia  on  the  coast  of  Latium. — D.  O. 

*  Between  Ardea  and  Aricia. 


B.C.  493-492J  FAMINE   AT   ROME  III 

by  fright,  as  is  usually  the  case,  both  increased  the  courage  of 
the  Romans,  and  naturally  dispirited  the  Volscians  who  had 
come  to  bring  help,  seeing  that  the  city  was  taken.  Thus  the 
Volscians  of  Antium  were  defeated,  and  the  town  of  Corioli 
was  taken.  And  so  much  did  Marcius  by  his  valour  eclipse 
the  reputation  of  the  consul,  that,  had  not  the  treaty  concluded 
with  the  Latins  by  Spurius  Cassius  alone,  in  consequence  of  the 
absence  of  his  colleagues,  and  which  was  engraved  on  a  brazen 
column,  served  as  a  memorial  of  it,  it  would  have  been  for- 
gotten that  Postumus  Cominius  had  conducted  the  war  with 
the  Volscians.  In  the  same  year  died  Agrippa  Menenius,  a 
man  all  his  life  equally  a  favourite  with  senators  and  com- 
mons, endeared  still  more  to  the  commons  after  the  secession. 
This  man,  the  mediator  and  impartial  promoter  of  harmony 
among  his  countrymen,  the  ambassador  of  the  senators  to  the 
commons,  the  man  who  brought  back  the  commons  to  the 
city,  did  not  leave  enough  to  bury  him  publicly.  The  people 
buried  him  by  the  contribution  of  a  sextans  x  per  man. 

Titus  Geganius  and  Publius  Minucius  were  next  elected 
consuls.  In  this  year,  when  abroad  there  was  complete  rest 
from  war,  and  at  home  dissensions  were  healed,  another  far 
more  serious  evil  fell  upon  the  state :  first,  dearness  of  pro- 
visions, a  consequence  of  the  lands  lying  untilled  owing  to 
the  secession  of  the  commons ;  then  a  famine,  such  as  attacks 
those  who  are  besieged.  And  matters  would  certainly  have 
ended  in  the  destruction  of  the  slaves  and  commons,  had  not 
the  consuls  adopted  precautionary  measures,  by  sending  per- 
sons in  every  direction  to  buy  up  corn,  not  only  into  Etruria 
on  the  coast  to  the  right  of  Ostia,  and  through  the  terri- 
tory of  the  Volscians  along  the  coast  on  the  left  as  far  as 
Cumae,  but  into  Sicily  also,  in  quest  of  it.  To  such  an  ex- 
tent had  the  hatred  of  their  neighbours  obliged  them  to 
stand  in  need  of  assistance  from  distant  countries.  When 
corn  had  been  bought  up  at  Cumae,  the  ships  were  detained  as 
security  for  the  property  of  the  Tarquinians  by  the  tyrant 
Aristodemus,  who  was  their  heir.  Among  the  Volscians  and 
in  the  Pomptine  territory  it  could  not  even  be  purchased. 
The  corn  dealers  themselves  incurred  danger  from  the  vio- 
lence of  the  inhabitants.  Corn  was  brought  from  Etruria  by 
way  of  the  Tiber:  by  means  of  this  the  people  were  supported. 
In  such  straitened  resources  they  would  have  been  harassed 
by  a  most  inopportune  war,  had  not  a  dreadful  pestilence  at- 
tacked the  Volscians  when  on  the  point  of  beginning  hos- 

1  The  sixth  part  of  the  as,  the  Roman  money  unit,  which  represented 
a  pound's  weight  of  copper. — D.  O. 


,I2  LIVY'S   ROMAN    HISTORY  [8.0.491 

tilities.  The  minds  of  the  enemy  being  so  terrified  by  this 
calamity,  that  they  felt  a  certain  alarm,  even  after  it  had  abated, 
the  Romans  both  augmented  the  number  of  their  colonists  at 
Velitrae,  and  despatched  a  new  colony  to  the  mountains  of 
Norba/to  serve  as  a  stronghold  in  the  Pomptine  district.  Then 
in  the  consulship  of  Marcus  Minucius  and  Aulus  Sempronius, 
a  great  quantity  of  corn  was  imported  from  Sicily,  and  it  was 
debated  in  the  senate  at  what  price  it  should  be  offered  to  the 
commons.  Many  were  of  opinion  that  the  time  was  come  for 
crushing  the  commons,  and  recovering  those  rights  which  had 
been  wrested  from  the  senators  by  secession  and  violence.  In 
particular,  Marcius  Coriolanus,  an  enemy  to  tribunician 
power,  said:  "  If  they  desire  corn  at  its  old  price,  let  them  re- 
store to  the  senators  their  former  rights.  Why  do  I,  like  a 
captive  sent  under  the  yoke,  as  if  I  had  been  ransomed  from 
robbers,  behold  plebeian  magistrates,  and  Sicinius  invested 
with  power  ?  Am  I  to  submit  to  these  indignities  longer  than 
is  necessary?  Am  I,  who  have  refused  to  endure  Tarquin  as 
king,  to  tolerate  Sicinius?  Let  him  now  secede,  let  him  call 
away  the  commons.  The  road  lies  open  to  the  Sacred  Mount 
and  to  other  hills.  Let  them  carry  off  the  corn  from  our 
lands,  as  they  did  three  years  since.  Let  them  have  the  bene- 
fit of  that  scarcity  which  in  their  mad  folly  they  have  them- 
selves occasioned.  I  venture  to  say,  that,  overcome  by  these 
sufferings,  they  will  themselves  become  tillers  of  the  lands, 
rather  than,  taking  up  arms,  and  seceding,  prevent  them 
from  being  tilled."  It  is  not  so  easy  to  say  whether  it  should 
have  been  done,  but  I  think  that  it  might  have  been  practi- 
cable for  the  senators,  on  the  condition  of  lowering  the  price 
of  provisions,  to  have  rid  themselves  of  both  the  tribuni- 
cian power,  and  all  the  regulations  imposed  on  them  against 
their  will. 

This  proposal  both  appeared  to  the  senate  too  harsh,  and 
from  exasperation  well-nigh  drove  the  people  to  arms:  they 
complained  that  they  were  now  being  attacked  with  famine, 
as  if  they  were  enemies,  that  they  were  being  robbed  of  food 
and  sustenance,  that  the  corn  brought  from  foreign  countries, 
the  only  support  with  which  fortune  had  unexpectedly  fur- 
nished them,  was  being  snatched  from  their  mouth,  unless  the 
tribunes  were  delivered  in  chains  to  Gnaeus  Marcius,  unless 
satisfaction  were  exacted  from  the  backs  of  the  commons  of 
Rome.  That  in  him  a  new  executioner  had  arisen,  one  to  bid 
them  either  die  or  be  slaves.  He  would  have  been  attacked 

1  Its  ruins  lie  on  the  road  to  Terracina,  near  Norma,  and  about  forty- 
five  miles  from  Rome, — D.  O, 


B.  c.  491]  EXILE   OF   GN^EUS  MARCIUS  113 

as  he  was  leaving  the  senate-house,  had  not  the  tribunes  very 
opportunely  appointed  him  a  day  for  trial :  thereupon  their 
rage  was  suppressed,  every  one  saw  himself  become  the  judge, 
the  arbiter  of  the  life  and  death  of  his  foe.  At  first  Marcius 
listened  to  the  threats  of  the  tribunes  with  contempt,  saying 
that  it  was  the  right  of  affording  aid,  not  of  inflicting  punish- 
ment, that  had  been  conferred  upon  that  office :  that  they 
were  tribunes  of  the  commons  and  not  of  the  senators.  But 
the  commons  had  risen  with  such  violent  determination,  that 
the  senators  felt  themselves  obliged  to  sacrifice  one  man  to  ar- 
rive at  a  settlement.  They  resisted,  however,  in  spite  of  oppos- 
ing odium,  and  exerted,  collectively,  the  powers  of  the  whole 
order,  as  well  as,  individually,  each  his  own.  At  first,  an  at- 
tempt was  made  to  see  if,  by  posting  their  clients  *  in  sev- 
eral places,  they  could  quash  the  whole  affair,  by  deterring  in- 
dividuals from  attending  meetings  and  cabals.  Then  they  all 
proceeded  in  a  body — one  would  have  said  that  all  the  senators 
were  on  their  trial — earnestly  entreating  the  commons  that, 
if  they  would  not  acquit  an  innocent  man,  they  would  at  least 
for  their  sake  pardon,  assuming  him  guilty,  one  citizen,  one 
senator.  As  he  did  not  attend  in  person  on  the  day  appointed, 
they  persisted  in  their  resentment.  He  was  condemned  in 
his  absence,  and  went  into  exile  among  the  Volscians,  threat- 
ening his  country,  and  even  then  cherishing  all  the  resent- 
ment of  an  enemy.2  The  Volscians  received  him  kindly  on  his 
arrival,  and  treated  him  still  more  kindly  every  day,  in  propor- 
tion as  his  resentful  feelings  toward  his  countrymen  became 
more  marked,  and  at  one  time  frequent  complaints,  at  an- 
other threats,  were  heard.  He  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  At- 
tius  Tullius,  who  was  at  that  time  by  far  the  chief  man  of  the 
Volscian  people,  and  had  always  been  a  determined  enemy  of 
the  Romans.  Thus,  while  long-standing  animosity  stimu- 
lated the  one,  and  recent  resentment  the  other,  they  concerted 
schemes  for  bringing  about  a  war  with  Rome.  They  did  not 
readily  believe  that  their  own  people  could  be  persuaded  to 
take  up  arms,  so  often  unsucessfully  tried,  seeing  that  by  many 
frequent  wars,  and  lastly,  by  the  loss  of  their  youth  in  the  pes- 
tilence, their  spirits  were  now  broken;  they  felt  that  in  a  case 
where  animosity  had  now  died  away  from  length  of  time  they 
must  proceed  by  scheming,  that  their  feelings  might  become 

1  The  clientes  formed  a  distinct  class  ;  they  were  the  hereditary  de- 
pendents of  certain  patrician  families  (their  patroni)  to  whom  they  were 
under  various  obligations  ;  they  naturally  sided  with  the  patricians. 

*  Dionysius  and  Plutarch  give  an  account  of  the  prosecution  much 
more  favourable  to  the  defendant. — D.  O, 

8 


II4  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [6.0.491 

exasperated  under  the  influence  of  some  fresh  cause  for  resent- 
ment. 

It  happened  that  preparations  were  being  made  at  Rome 
for  a  renewal  of  the  great  games.1  The  cause  of  this  renewal 
was  as  follows:  On  the  day  of  the  games,  in  the  morning, 
when  the  show  had  not  yet  begun,  a  certain  head  of  a  family 
had  driven  a  slave  of  his  through  the  middle  of  the  circus, 
while  he  was  being  flogged,  tied  to  the  fork : 2  after  this  the 
games  had  been  begun,  as  if  the  matter  had  nothing  to 
do  with  any  religious  difficulty.  Soon  afterward  Titus  La- 
tinius,  a  plebeian,  had  a  dream,  in  which  Jupiter  appeared  to 
him  and  said,  that  the  person  who  danced  before  the  games 
had  displeased  him;  unless  those  games  were  renewed  on  a 
splendid  scale,  danger  would  threaten  the  city:  let  him  go 
and  announce  this  to  the  consuls.  Though  his  mind  was  not 
altogether  free  from  religious  awe,  his  reverence  for  the  dig- 
nity of  the  magistrates,  lest  he  might  become  a  subject  for 
ridicule  in  the  mouths  of  all,  overcame  his  religious  fear.  This 
delay  cost  him  dear,  for  he  lost  his  son  within  a  few  days ;  and, 
that  there  might  be  no  doubt  about  the  cause  of  this  sudden 
calamity,  the  same  vision,  presenting  itself  to  him  in  the  midst 
of  his  sorrow  of  heart,  seemed  to  ask  him,  whether  he  had  been 
sufficiently  requited  for  his  contempt  of  the  deity ;  that  a  still 
heavier  penalty  threatened  him,  unless  he  went  immediately 
and  delivered  the  message  to  the  consuls.  The  matter  was 
now  still  more  urgent.  While,  however,  he  still  delayed  and 
kept  putting  it  off,  he  was  attacked  by  a  severe  stroke  of  dis- 
ease, a  sudden  paralysis.  Then  indeed  the  anger  of  the  gods 
frightened  him.  Wearied  out  therefore  by  his  past  sufferings 
and  by  those  that  threatened  him,  he  convened  a  meeting  of 
his  friends  and  relatives,  and,  after  he  had  detailed  to  them  all 
he  had  seen  and  heard,  and  the  fact  of  Jupiter  having  so  often 
presented  himself  to  him  in  his  sleep,  and  the  threats  and 
anger  of  Heaven  speedily  fulfilled  in  his  own  calamities,  he 
was,  with  the  unhesitating  assent  of  all  who  were  present,  con- 
veyed in  a  litter  into  the  forum  to  the  presence  of  the  consuls. 
From  the  forum,  by  order  of  the  consuls,  he  was  carried  into 
the  senate-house,  and,  after  he  had  recounted  the  same  story 
to  the  senators,  to  the  great  surprise  of  all,  behold  another 
miracle:  he  who  had  been  carried  into  the  senate-house  de- 

1  Celebrated  annually  in  the  Circus  Maximus,  September  4th  to  I2th, 
in  honour  of  Jupiter,  Juno,  and  Minerva,  or,  according  to  some  authori- 
ties, of  Consus  and  Neptunus  Equestus. — D.  O. 

*  A  > -shaped  yoke  placed  on  the  slave's  neck,  with  his  hands  tied  to 
the  ends.— D.  O. 


B.  c.  491]      VOLSCIANS  DRIVEN   FROM  THE  CITY  115 

prived  of  the  use  of  all  his  limbs,  is  reported  to  have  returned 
home  on  his  own  feet,  after  he  had  discharged  his  duty. 

The  senate  decreed  that  the  games  should  be  celebrated 
on  as  magnificent  a  scale  as  possible.  To  those  games  a  great 
number  of  Volscians  came  at  the  suggestion  of  Attius  Tullius. 
Before  the  games  had  commenced,  Tullius,  as  had  been  ar- 
ranged privately  with  Marcius,  approached  the  consuls,  and 
said  that  there  were  certain  matters  concerning  the  common- 
wealth about  which  he  wished  to  treat  with  them  in  private. 
When  all  witnesses  had  been  ordered  to  retire,  he  said:  "  I  am 
reluctant  to  say  anything  of  my  countrymen  that  may  seem 
disparaging.  I  do  not,  however,  come  to  accuse  them  of  any 
crime  actually  committed  by  them,  but  to  see  to  it  that  they  do 
not  commit  one.  The  minds  of  our  people  are  far  more  fickle 
than  I  could  wish.  We  have  learned  that  by  many  disasters; 
seeing  that  we  are  still  preserved,  not  through  our  own  merits, 
but  thanks  to  your  forbearance.  There  is  now  here  a  great 
multitude  of  Volscians ;  the  games  are  going  on :  the  city  will 
be  intent  on  the  exhibition.  I  remember  what  was  done  in  this 
city  on  a  similar  occasion  by  the  youth  of  the  Sabines.  My 
mind  shudders  at  the  thought  that  anything  should  be  done 
inconsiderately  and  rashly.  I  have  deemed  it  right  that  these 
matters  should  be  mentioned  beforehand  to  you,  consuls,  both 
for  your  sakes  and  ours.  With  regard  to  myself,  it  is  my  de- 
termination to  depart  hence  home  immediately,  that  I  may  not 
be  tainted  with  the  suspicion  of  any  word  or  deed  if  I  remain." 
Having  said  this,  he  departed.  When  the  consuls  had  laid  the 
matter  before  the  senate,  a  matter  that  was  doubtful,  though 
vouched  for  by  a  thoroughly  reliable  authority,  the  authority, 
more  than  the  matter  itself,  as  usually  happens,  urged  them  to 
adopt  even  needless  precautions;  and  a  decree  of  the  senate 
having  been  passed  that  the  Volscians  should  quit  the  city, 
criers  were  sent  in  different  directions  to  order  them  all  to 
depart  before  night.  They  were  at  first  smitten  with  great 
panic,  as  they  ran  in  different  directions  to  their  lodgings  to 
carry  away  their  effects.  Afterward,  when  setting  out,  indig- 
nation arose  in  their  breasts,  to  think  that  they,  as  if  polluted 
with  crime  and  contaminated,  had  been  driven  away  from  the 
games  on  festival  days,  a  meeting,  so  to  speak,  both  of  gods 
and  men. 

As  they  went  along  in  an  almost  unbroken  line,  Tullius, 
who  had  preceded  them  to  the  fountain  of  Ferentina,1  received 
the  chief  men,  as  each  arrived,  and,  complaining  and  giving 

1  In  a  grove  at  the  foot  of  the  Alban  Hill. — D.  O. 


n6  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  49! 

vent  to  expressions  of  indignation,  led  both  those,  who  eager- 
ly listened  to  language  that  favoured  their  resentment,  and 
through  them  the  rest  of  the  multitude,  into  a  plain  adjoin- 
ing the  road.  There,  having  begun  an  address  after  the 
manner  of  a  public  harangue,  he  said :  "  Though  you  were  to 
forget  the  former  wrongs  inflicted  upon  you  by  the  Roman 
people,  the  calamities  of  the  nation  of  the  Volscians,  and  all 
other  such  matters,  with  what  feelings,  pray,  do  you  regard 
this  outrage  offered  you  to-day,  whereby  they  have  opened 
the  games  by  insulting  us?  Did  you  not  feel  that  a  triumph 
has  been  gained  over  you  this  day?  that  you,  when  leaving, 
were  the  observed  of  all,  citizens,  foreigners,  and  so  many 
neighbouring  states?  that  your  wives,  your  children  were  led 
in  mockery  before  the  eyes  of  men?  What  do  you  suppose 
were  the  feelings  of  those  who  heard  the  voice  of  the  crier? 
what  of  those  who  saw  us  departing?  what  of  those  who  met 
this  ignominious  cavalcade  ?  what,  except  that  it  is  assuredly  a 
matter  of  some  offence  against  the  gods :  and  that,  because,  if 
we  were  present  at  the  show,  we  should  profane  the  games, 
and  be  guilty  of  an  act  that  would  need  expiation,  for  this 
reason  we  are  driven  away  from  the  dwellings  of  these  pious 
people,  from  their  meeting  and  assembly?  what  then?  does 
it  not  occur  to  you  that  we  still  live,  because  we  have  hastened 
our  departure? — if  indeed  this  is  a  departure  and  not  rather 
a  flight.  And  do  you  not  consider  this  to  be  the  city  of  ene- 
mies, in  which,  if  you  had  delayed  a  single  day,  you  must 
all  have  died?  War  has  been  declared  against  you,  to  the 
great  injury  of  those  who  declared  it,  if  you  be  men." 
Thus,  being  both  on  their  own  account  filled  with  resent- 
ment, and  further  incited  by  this  harangue,  they  severally  de- 
parted to  their  homes,  and  by  stirring  up  each  his  own  state, 
succeeded  in  bringing  about  the  revolt  of  the  entire  Volscian 
nation. 

The  generals  selected  to  take  command  in  that  war  by  the 
unanimous  choice  of  all  the  states  were  Attius  Tullius  and 
Gnaeus  Marcius,  an  exile  from  Rome,  in  the  latter  of  whom 
far  greater  hopes  were  reposed.  These  hopes  he  by  no  means 
disappointed,  so  that  it  was  clearly  seen  that  the  Roman 
commonwealth  was  powerful  by  reason  of  its  generals  rather 
than  its  military  force.  Having  marched  to  Circeii,  he  first 
expelled  from  thence  the  Roman  colonists,  and  handed  over 
that  city  in  a  state  of  freedom  to  the  Volscians.  From  thence 
passing  across  the  country  through  by-roads  into  the  Latin 
way,  he  deprived  the  Romans  of  the  following  recently  ac- 
quired towns,  Satricum,  Longula,  Polusca,  Corioli.  He  next 


B.C.  49^-488]         WAR   WITH   THE   VOLSCIANS  117 

made  himself  master  of  Lavinium,  and  then  took  in  succes- 
sion Corbio,  Vitellia,  Trebia,  Labici,  and  Pedum.1  Lastly  he 
marched  from  Pedum  toward  Rome,  and  having  pitched  his 
camp  at  the  Cluilian  trenches  five  miles  from  the  city,  he 
openly  ravaged  the  Roman  territory,  guards  being  sent  among 
the  devastators  to  preserve  the  lands  of  the  patricians  unin- 
jured, whether  it  was  that  he  was  chiefly  incensed  against  the 
plebeians,  or  whether  his  object  was  that  dissension  might 
arise  between  the  senators  and  the  people.  And  it  certainly 
would  have  arisen — so  powerfully  did  the  tribunes,  by  in- 
veighing against  the  leading  men  of  the  state,  incite  the 
plebeians,  already  exasperated  in  themselves — had  not  appre- 
hension of  danger  from  abroad,  the  strongest  bond  of  union, 
united  their  minds,  though  distrustful  and  mutually  hostile. 
The  only  matter  in  which  they  were  not  agreed  was  this: 
that,  while  the  senate  and  consuls  rested  their  hopes  on  noth- 
ing else  but  arms,  the  plebeians  preferred  anything  to  war. 
Spurius  Nautius  and  Sextus  Furius  were  now  consuls.  While 
they  were  reviewing  the  legions,  posting  guards  along  the 
walls  and  other  places  where  they  had  determined  that  there 
should  be  outposts  and  watches,  a  vast  multitude  of  persons 
demanding  peace  terrified  them  first  by  their  seditious  clam- 
ouring, and  then  compelled  them  to  convene  the  senate,  to 
consider  the  question  of  sending  ambassadors  to  Gnaeus  Mar- 
cius.  The  senate  approved  the  proposal,  when  it  was  evident 
that  the  spirits  of  the  plebeians  were  giving  way;  ambassa- 
dors, sent  to  Marcius  to  treat  concerning  peace,  brought  back 
the  haughty  answer:  If  their  lands  were  restored  to  the  Vol- 
scians,  the  question  of  peace  might  then  be  considered;  if  they 
were  minded  to  enjoy  the  plunder  of  war  at  their  ease,  he, 
remembering  both  the  injurious  treatment  of  his  countrymen, 
as  well  as  the  kindness  of  strangers,  would  do  his  utmost  to 
make  it  appear  that  his  spirit  was  irritated  by  exile,  not 
crushed.  The  same  envoys,  being  sent  a  second  time,  were 
not  admitted  into  the  camp.  It  is  recorded  that  the  priests 
also,  arrayed  in  the  vestments  of  their  office,  went  as  suppli- 
ants to  the  enemy's  camp,  but  that  they  did  not  influence  his 
mind  any  more  than  the  ambassadors. 

Then  the  matrons  assembled  in  a  body  around  Veturia, 
the  mother  of  Coriolanus,  and  his  wife,  Volumnia:  whether 

1  There  seems  to  be  something  wrong  here,  as  Satricum,  etc.,  were  sit- 
uated west  of  the  Via  Appia,  while  Livy  places  them  on  the  Via  Latina. 
Niebuhr  thinks  that  the  words  "  passing  across  .  .  .  Latin  way,"  should 
be  transposed,  and  inserted  after  the  words  "  he  then  took  in  succes- 
sion." For  the  position  of  these  towns,  see  Map. 


Ug  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [6.0.491-488 

that  was  the  result  of  public  counsel,  or  of  women's  fear,  I 
can  not  clearly  ascertain.  Anyhow,  they  succeeded  in  in- 
ducing Veturia,  a  woman  advanced  in  years,  and  Volumnia, 
with  her  two  sons  by  Marcius,  to  go  into  the  camp  of  the 
enemy,  and  in  prevailing  upon  women  to  defend  the  city  by 
entreaties  and  tears,  since  men  were  unable  to  defend  it  by 
arms.  When  they  reached  the  camp,  and  it  was  announced 
to  Coriolanus  that  a  great  crowd  of  women  was  approaching, 
he,  as  one  who  had  been  affected  neither  by  the  public  majesty 
of  the  state,  as  represented  by  its  ambassadors,  nor  by  the 
sanctity  of  religion  so  strikingly  spread  before  his  eyes  and 
understanding  in  the  person  of  its  priests,  was  at  first  much 
more  obdurate  against  women's  tears.  Then  one  of  his  ac- 
quaintances, who  had  recognised  Veturia,  distinguished  be- 
yond all  the  rest  by  her  sorrowful  mien,  standing  in  the  midst 
with  her  daughter-in-law  and  grandchildren,  said,  "  Unless  my 
eyes  deceive  me,  your  mother,  and  wife  and  children,  are  at 
hand."  Coriolanus,  bewildered,  almost  like  one  who  had  lost 
his  reason,  rushed  from  his  seat,  and  offered  to  embrace  his 
mother  as  she  met  him;  but  she,  turning  from  entreaties  to 
wrath,  said:  "Before  I  permit  your  embrace,  let  me  know 
whether  I  have  come  to  an  enemy  or  to  a  son,  whether  I  am 
in  your  camp  a  captive  or  a  mother?  Has  length  of  life  and 
a  hapless  old  age  reserved  me  for  this — to  behold  you  first 
an  exile,  then  an  enemy?  Have  you  had  the  heart  to  lay  waste 
this  land,  which  gave  you  birth  and  nurtured  you?  Though 
you  had  come  in  an  incensed  and  vengeful  spirit,  did  not  your 
resentment  abate  when  you  entered  its  borders?  When  Rome 
came  within  view,  did  not  the  thought  enter  your  mind — 
within  those  walls  are  my  house  and  household  gods,  my 
mother,  wife,  and  children?  So  then,  had  I  not  been  a  mother, 
Rome  would  not  now  be  besieged:  had  I  not  a  son,  I  might 
have  died  free  in  a  free  country.  But  I  can  now  suffer  noth- 
ing that  will  not  bring  more  disgrace  on  you  than  misery  on 
me;  nor,  most  wretched  as  I  am,  shall  I  be  so  for  long.  Look 
to  these,  whom,  if  you  persist,  either  an  untimely  death  or 
lengthened  slavery  awaits."  Then  his  wife  and  children  em- 
braced him:  and  the  lamentation  proceeding  from  the  entire 
crowd  of  women  and  their  bemoaning  their  own  lot  and  their 
country's,  at  length  overcame  the  man.  Then,  having  em- 
braced his  family,  he  sent  them  away;  he  himself  withdrew 
his  camp  from  the  city.  After  he  had  drawn  off  his  troops 
from  Roman  territory,  they  say  that  he  died  overwhelmed  by 
the  hatred  excited  against  him  on  account  of  this  act;  differ- 
ent writers  give  different  accounts  of  his  death:  I  find  in 


B.  C.  488-486]    AGRARIAN  LAW  FIRST  PROPOSED  1 19 

Fabius,1  far  the  most  ancient  authority,  that  he  lived  to  an 
advanced  age:  at  any  rate,  this  writer  states,  that  in  his  old 
age  he  often  made  use  of  the  expression,  "  that  exile  was  far 
more  miserable  to  the  aged."  The  men  of  Rome  were  not 
grudging  in  the  award  of  their  due  praise  to  the  women,  so 
truly  did  they  live  without  disparaging  the  merit  of  others: 
a  temple  was  built,  and  dedicated  to  female  Fortune,  to  serve 
also  as  a  record  of  the  event. 

The  Volscians  afterward  returned,  having  been  joined  by 
the  ^Equans,  into  Roman  territory:  the  latter,  however,  would 
no  longer  have  Attius  Tullius  as  their  leader;  hence  from  a 
dispute,  whether  the  Volscians  or  the  yEquans  should  give  the 
general  to  the  allied  army,  a  quarrel,  and  afterward  a  furious 
battle,  broke  out.  Therein  the  good  fortune  of  the  Roman 
people  destroyed  the  two  armies  of  the  enemy,  by  a  contest 
no  less  ruinous  than  obstinate.  Titus  Sicinius  and  Gaius 
Aquilius  were  made  consuls.  The  Volscians  fell  to  Sicinius  as 
his  province;  the  Hernicans — for  they,  too,  were  in  arms — to 
Aquilius.  That  year  the  Hernicans  were  completely  defeated; 
they  met  and  parted  with  the  Volscians  without  any  advan- 
tage being  gained  on  either  side. 

Spurius  Cassius  and  Proculus  Verginius  were  next  made 
consuls;  a  treaty  was  concluded  with  the  Hernicans;  two 
thirds  of  their  land  were  taken  from  them:  of  this  the  consul 
Cassius  proposed  to  distribute  one  half  among  the  Latins, 
the  other  half  among  the  commons.  To  this  donation  he 
desired  to  add  a  considerable  portion  of  land,  which,  though 
public  property,2  he  alleged  was  possessed  by  private  indi- 
viduals. This  proceeding  alarmed  several  of  the  senators, 
the  actual  possessors,  at  the  danger  that  threatened  their  prop- 
erty; the  senators  moreover  felt  anxiety  on  public  grounds, 
fearing  that  the  consul  by  his  donation  was  establishing  an 
influence  dangerous  to  liberty.  Then,  for  the  first  time,  an 
agrarian  law  was  proposed,  which  from  that  time  down  to  the 
memory  of  our  own  days  has  never  been  discussed  without  the 
greatest  civil  disturbances.  The  other  consul  opposed  the 
donation,  supported  by  the  senators,  nor,  indeed,  were  all  the 
commons  opposed  to  him:  they  had  at  first  begun  to  feel 

1  Quintus  Fabius  Pictor,  the  historian. — D.  O. 

1  The  ager  publicus  consisted  of  the  landed  estates  which  had  belonged 
to  the  kings,  and  were  increased  by  land  taken  from  enemies  who  had 
been  conquered  in  war.  The  patricians,  having  the  chief  political  power, 
gained  exclusive  occupation  (possessio)  of  this  ager  publicus,  for  which 
they  paid  a  nominal  rent  in  the  shape  of  produce  and  tithes.  The  nature 
of  the  charge  brought  by  Cassius  was  not  the  fact  of  its  being  occupied 
by  privati,  but  by  patricians  to  the  exclusion  of  plebeians. 


I20  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  488-486 

disgust  that  this  gift  had  been  extended  from  the  citizens  to 
the  allies,  and  thus  rendered  common:  in  the  next  place  they 
frequently  heard  the  consul  Verginius  in  the  assemblies  as  it 
were  prophesying,  that  the  gift  of  his  colleague  was  pesti- 
lential: that  those  lands  were  sure  to  bring  slavery  to  those 
who  received  them :  that  the  way  was  being  paved  to  a  throne. 
Else  why  was  it  that  the  allies  were  thus  included,  and  the 
Latin  nation?  What  was  the  object  of  a  third  of  the  land 
that  had  been  taken  being  restored  to  the  Hernicans,  so  lately 
their  enemies,  except  that  those  nations  might  have  Cassius 
for  their  leader  instead  of  Coriolanus?  The  dissuader  and  op- 
poser  of  the  agrarian  law  now  began  to  be  popular.  Both 
consuls  then  vied  with  each  other  in  humouring  the  commons. 
Verginius  said  that  he  would  suffer  the  lands  to  be  assigned, 
provided  they  were  assigned  to  no  one  but  a  Roman  citizen. 
Cassius,  because  in  the  agrarian  donation  he  sought  popu- 
larity among  the  allies,  and  was  therefore  lowered  in  the  esti- 
mation of  his  countrymen,  commanded,  in  order  that  by  an- 
other gift  he  might  win  the  affections  of  the  citizens,  that  the 
money  received  for  the  Sicilian  corn  should  be  refunded  to 
the  people.  That,  however,  the  people  spurned  as  nothing 
else  than  a  ready  money  bribe  for  regal  authority:  so  uncom- 
promisingly were  his  gifts  rejected,  as  if  there  was  abundance 
of  everything,  in  consequence  of  their  inveterate  suspicion 
that  he  was  aiming  at  sovereign  power.  As  soon  as  he  went 
out  of  office,  it  is  certain  that  he  was  condemned  and  put  to 
death.  There  are  some  who  represent  that  his  father  was  the 
person  who  carried  out  the  punishment:  that  he,  having  tried 
the  case  at  home,  scourged  him  and  put  him  to  death,  and 
consecrated  his  son's  private  property  to  Ceres;  that  out  of 
this  a  statue  was  set  up  and  inscribed,  "  Presented  out  of  the 
property  of  the  Cassian  family."  In  some  authors  I  find  it 
stated,  which  is  more  probable,  that  a  day  was  assigned  him 
to  stand  his  trial  for  high  treason,  by  the  quaestors,1  Caeso 
Fabius  and  Lucius  Valerius,  and  that  he  was  condemned  by 
the  decision  of  the  people;  that  his  house  was  demolished 
by  a  public  decree :  this  is  the  spot  where  there  is  now  an  open 
space  before  the  Temple  of  Tellus.2  However,  whether  the 
trial  was  held  in  private  or  public,  he  was  condemned  in  the 
consulship  of  Servius  Cornelius  and  Quintus  Fabius. 

The  resentment  of  the  people  against  Cassius  was  not  last- 

"  Quaestors,"  this  is  the  first  mention  of  these  officers  in  Livy  ;  in 
early  times  it  appears  to  have  been  part  of  their  duty  to  prosecute  those 
who  were  guilty  of  treason,  and  to  carry  out  the  punishment. 
•  On  the  west  slope  of  the  Esquiline.— D.  O. 


B.  C.  486-483]        AGRARIAN   LAW  DEFEATED  121 

ing.  The  charm  of  the  agrarian  law,  now  that  its  proposer 
was  removed,  of  itself  entered  their  minds:  and  their  desire 
of  it  was  further  kindled  by  the  meanness  of  the  senators,  who, 
after  the  Volscians  and  ^Equans  had  been  completely  de- 
feated in  that  year,  defrauded  the  soldiers  of  their  share  of 
the  booty;  whatever  was  taken  from  the  enemy,  was  sold  by 
the  consul  Fabius,  and  the  proceeds  lodged  in  the  public 
treasury.  All  who  bore  the  name  of  Fabius  became  odious 
to  the  commons  on  account  of  the  last  consul:  the  patricians, 
however,  succeeded  in  getting  Caeso  Fabius  elected  consul 
with  Lucius  ^milius.  The  commons,  still  further  aggravated 
at  this,  provoked  war  abroad  by  exciting  disturbance  at  home  ;* 
in  consequence  of  the  war  civil  dissensions  were  then  discon- 
tinued. Patricians  and  commons  uniting,  under  the  command 
of  ^milius,  overcame  the  Volscians  and  ^Equans,  who  re- 
newed hostilities,  in  a  successful  engagement.  The  retreat, 
however,  destroyed  more  of  the  enemy  than  the  battle;  so 
perseveringly  did  the  cavalry  pursue  them  when  routed.  Dur- 
ing the  same  year,  on  the  ides  of  July,2  the  Temple  of  Castor 
was  dedicated:  it  had  been  vowed  during  the  Latin  war  in 
the  dictatorship  of  Postumius:  his  son,  who  was  elected  du- 
umvir for  that  special  purpose,  dedicated  it. 

In  that  year,  also,  the  minds  of  the  people  were  excited  by 
the  allurements  of  the  agrarian  law.  The  tribunes  of  the 
people  endeavoured  to  enhance  their  authority,  in  itself  agree- 
able to  the  people,  by  promoting  a  popular  law.  The  pa- 
tricians, considering  that  there  was  enough  and  more  than 
enough  frenzy  in  the  multitude  without  any  additional  incite- 
ment, viewed  with  horror  largesses  and  all  inducements  to 
ill-considered  action:  the  patricians  found  in  the  consuls  most 
energetic  abettors  in  resistance.  That  portion  of  the  com- 
monwealth therefore  prevailed;  and  not  for  the  moment  only, 
but  for  the  coming  year  also  they  succeeded  in  securing  the 
election  of  Marcus  Fabius,  Caeso's  brother,  as  consul,  and  one 
still  more  detested  by  the  commons  for  his  persecution  of 
Spurius  Cassius — namely,  Lucius  Valerius.  In  that  year  also 
there  was  a  contest  with  the  tribunes.  The  law  came  to  noth- 
ing, and  the  supporters  of  the  law  proved  to  be  mere  boasters, 
by  their  frequent  promises  of  a  gift  that  was  never  granted. 
The  Fabian  name  was  thenceforward  held  in  high  repute,  after 

1  There  seems  to  be  something  wrong  in  the  text  here,  as  the  subter- 
fuge was  distinctively  a  patrician  one,  and  the  commons  had  nothing  to 
gain  and  all  to  lose  by  it.  If  Livy  means  that  the  commons  provoked 
war  by  giving  cause  for  the  patricians  to  seek  refuge  in  it,  he  certainly 
puts  it  very  vaguely. — D,  O,  *  July  ijth. 


122  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [6.0.483-481 

three  successive  consulates,  and  all  as  it  were  uniformly  tested 
in  contending  with  the  tribunes;  accordingly,  the  honour  re- 
mained for  a  considerable  time  in  that  family,  as  being  right 
well  placed.  A  war  with  Veii  was  then  begun :  the  Vol- 
scians  also  renewed  hostilities;  but,  while  their  strength  was 
almost  more  than  sufficient  for  foreign  wars,  they  only  abused 
it  by  contending  among  themselves.  In  addition  to  the  dis- 
tracted state  of  the  public  mind  prodigies  from  heaven  in- 
creased the  general  alarm,  exhibiting  almost  daily  threats  in 
the  city  and  in  the  country,  and  the  soothsayers,  being  con- 
sulted by  the  state  and  by  private  individuals,  declared,  at  one 
time  by  means  of  entrails,  at  another  by  birds,  that  there  was 
no  other  cause  for  the  deity  having  been  roused  to  anger,  save 
that  the  ceremonies  of  religion  were  not  duly  performed. 
These  terrors,  however,  terminated  in  this,  that  Oppia,  a  vestal 
virgin,  being  found  guilty  of  a  breach  of  chastity,  suffered 
punishment.1 

Quintus  Fabius  and  Gaius  Julius  were  next  elected  con- 
suls. During  this  year  the  dissension  at  home  was  not  abated, 
while  the  war  abroad  was  more  desperate.  The  ^Equans  took 
up  arms:  the  Veientines  also  invaded  and  plundered  the 
Roman  territory:  as  the  anxiety  about  these  wars  increased, 
Caeso  Fabius  and  Spurius  Furius  were  appointed  consuls. 
The  ^quans  were  laying  siege  to  Ortona,  a  Latin  city.  The 
Veientines,  now  sated  with  plunder,  threatened  to  besiege 
Rome  itself.  These  terrors,  which  ought  to  have  assuaged  the 
feelings  of  the  commons,  increased  them  still  further:  and 
the  people  resumed  the  practice  of  declining  military  service, 
not  of  their  own  accord,  as  before,  but  Spurius  Licinius,  a 
tribune  of  the  people,  thinking  that  the  time  had  come  for 
forcing  the  agrarian  law  on  the  patricians  by  extreme  neces- 
sity, had  undertaken  the  task  of  obstructing  the  military  prep- 
arations. However,  all  the  odium  against  the  tribunician 
power  was  directed  against  the  author  of  this  proceeding:  and 
even  his  own  colleagues  rose  up  against  him  as  vigorously 
as  the  consuls;  and  by  their  assistance  the  consuls  held  the 
levy.  An  army  was  raised  for  the  two  wars  simultaneously; 
one  was  intrusted  to  Fabius  to  be  led  against  the  Veientines, 
the  other  to  Furius  to  operate  against  the  JEquans.  In  re- 
gard to  the  latter,  indeed,  nothing  took  place  worthy  of 
mention.  Fabius  had  considerably  more  trouble  with  his 
countrymen  than  with  the  enemy:  that  one  man  alone,  as 
consul,  sustained  the  commonwealth,  which  the  army  was 

1  By  being  buried  alive.  The  idea  being  that  the  ceremonies  could 
not  be  duly  performed  by  an  unchaste  vestal, — D.  O. 


B.  c.  483-481]  SEDITION  IN  THE  ARMY  123 

doing  its  best  to  betray,  as  far  as  in  it  lay,  from  hatred  of  the 
consul.  For  when  the  consul,  in  addition  to  his  other  military 
talents,  of  which  he  had  exhibited  abundant  instances  in  his 
preparations  for  and  in  his  conduct  of  war,  had  so  drawn  up 
his  line  that  he  routed  the  enemy's  army  solely  by  a  charge 
of  his  cavalry,  the  infantry  refused  to  pursue  them  when 
routed:  nor,  although  the  exhortation  of  their  general,  whom 
they  hated,  had  no  effect  upon  them,  could  even  their  own 
infamy,  and  the  immediate  public  disgrace  and  subsequent 
danger  likely  to  arise,  if  the  enemy  recovered  their  courage, 
induce  them  to  quicken  their  pace,  or  even,  if  nothing  else, 
to  stand  in  order  of  battle.  Without  orders  they  faced  about, 
and  with  a  sorrowful  air  (one  would  have  thought  them  de- 
feated) they  returned  to  camp,  execrating  at  one  time  their 
general,  at  another  the  vigour  displayed  by  the  cavalry.  Nor 
did  the  general  know  where  to  look  for  any  remedies  for  so 
harmful  a  precedent:  so  true  is  it  that  the  most  distinguished 
talents  will  be  more  likely  found  deficient  in  the  art  of  man- 
aging a  countryman,  than  in  that  of  conquering  an  enemy. 
The  consul  returned  to  Rome,  not  having  so  much  increased 
his  military  glory  as  irritated  and  exasperated  the  hatred  of 
his  soldiers  toward  him.  The  patricians,  however,  succeeded 
in  keeping  the  consulship  in  the  Fabian  family.  They  elected 
Marcus  Fabius  consul;  Gnaeus  Manlius  was  assigned  as  a 
colleague  to  Fabius. 

This  year  also  found  a  tribune  to  support  an  agrarian  law. 
This  was  Tiberius  Pontificius,  who,  pursuing  the  same  tactics, 
as  if  it  had  succeeded  in  the  case  of  Spurius  Licinius,  ob- 
structed the  levy  for  a  little  time.  The  patricians  being  once 
more  perplexed,  Appius  Claudius  declared  that  the  tribunician 
power  had  been  put  down  the  year  before,  for  the  moment 
by  the  fact,  for  the  future  by  the  precedent  established,  since 
it  was  found  that  it  could  be  rendered  ineffective  by  its  own 
strength;  for  that  there  never  would  be  wanting  a  tribune 
who  would  both  be  willing  to  obtain  a  victory  for  himself 
over  his  colleague,  and  the  good-will  of  the  better  party  to 
the  advancement  of  the  public  weal:  that  more  tribunes  than 
one,  if  there  were  need  of  more  than  one,  would  be  ready  to 
assist  the  consuls :  and  that  in  fact  one  would  be  sufficient  even 
against  all.1  Only  let  the  consuls  and  leading  members  of  the 
senate  take  care  to  win  over,  if  not  all,  at  least  some  of  the 
tribunes,  to  the  side  of  the  commonwealth  and  the  senate. 
The  senators,  instructed  by  the  counsels  of  Appius,  both  col- 
lectively addressed  the  tribunes  with  kindness  and  courtesy, 

1  By  his  power  of  veto. — D.  O. 


124  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.481-480 

and  the  men  of  consular  rank,  according  as  each  possessed 
private  personal  influence  over  them  individually,  and,  partly 
by  conciliation,  partly  by  authority,  prevailed  so  far  as  to 
make  them  consent  that  the  powers  of  the  tribunician  office 
should  be  beneficial  to  the  state;  and  by  the  aid  of  four  trib- 
unes against  one  obstructor  of  the  public  good,  the  consuls 
carried  out  the  levy.  They  then  set  out  to  the  war  against 
Veil,  to  which  auxiliaries  had  assembled  from  all  parts  of 
Etruria,  not  so  much  influenced  by  feelings  of  regard  for  the 
Veientines,  as  because  they  had  formed  a  hope  that  the  power 
of  Rome  could  be  destroyed  by  internal  discord.  And  in  the 
general  councils  of  all  the  states  of  Etruria  the  leading  men 
murmured  that  the  power  of  Rome  would  last  forever,  unless 
they  were  distracted  by  disturbances  among  themselves:  that 
this  was  the  only  poison,  this  the  bane  discovered  for  powerful 
states,  to  render  mighty  empires  mortal:  that  this  evil,  a  long 
time  checked,  partly  by  the  wise  measures  of  the  patricians, 
partly  by  the  forbearance  of  the  commons,  had  now  proceeded 
to  extremities:  that  two  states  were  now  formed  out  of  one: 
that  each  party  had  its  own  magistrates,  its  own  laws:  that, 
although  at  first  they  were  accustomed  to  be  turbulent  during 
the  levies,  still  these  same  individuals  had  notwithstanding 
ever  been  obedient  to  their  commanders  during  war :  that  as 
long  as  military  discipline  was  retained,  no  matter  what  might 
be  the  state  of  the  city,  the  evil  might  have  been  withstood: 
but  that  now  the  custom  of  not  obeying  their  officers  followed 
the  Roman  soldier  even  to  the  camp:  that  in  the  last  war, 
even  in  a  regular  engagement  and  in  the  very  heat  of  battle, 
by  consent  of  the  army  the  victory  had  been  voluntarily  sur- 
rendered to  the  vanquished  ^Equans:  that  the  standards  had 
been  deserted,  the  general  abandoned  on  the  field,  and  that 
the  army  had  returned  to  camp  without  orders :  without 
doubt,  if  they  persevered,  Rome  might  be  conquered  by  means 
of  her  own  soldiery:  nothing  else  was  necessary  save  a  decla- 
ration and  show  of  war :  the  fates  and  the  gods  would  of  them- 
selves manage  the  rest.  These  hopes  had  armed  the  Etrus- 
cans, who  by  many  changes  of  fortune  had  been  vanquished 
and  victors  in  turn. 

The  Roman  consuls  also  dreaded  nothing  else  but  their 
own  strength  and  their  own  arms.  The  recollection  of  the 
most  mischievous  precedent  set  in  the  last  war  was  a  terrible 
warning  to  them  not  to  let  matters  go  so  far  that  they  would 
have  two  armies  to  fear  at  the  same  time.  Accordingly,  they 
kept  within  their  camp,  avoiding  battle,  owing  to  the  two- 
fold danger  that  threatened  them,  thinking  that  length  of  time 


B.  C.  480]  WAR   WITH    THE   ETRUSCANS  125 

and  circumstances  themselves  would  perchance  soften  down 
resentment,  and  bring  them  to  a  healthy  frame  of  mind.  The 
Veientine  enemy  and  the  Etruscans  proceeded  with  propor- 
tionately greater  precipitation;  they  provoked  them  to  battle, 
at  first  by  riding  up  to  the  camp  and  challenging  them;  at 
length,  when  they  produced  no  effect,  by  reviling  the  consuls 
and  the  army  alike,  they  declared  that  the  pretence  of  internal 
dissension  was  assumed  as  a  cloak  for  cowardice:  and  that 
the  consuls  rather  distrusted  the  courage  than  disbelieved  the 
sincerity  of  their  soldiers:  that  inaction  and  idleness  among 
men  in  arms  were  a  novel  form  of  sedition.  Besides  this  they 
uttered  insinuations,  partly  true  and  partly  false,  as  to  the 
upstart  nature  of  their  race  and  origin.  While  they  loudly 
proclaimed  this  close  to  the  very  rampart  and  gates,  the  con- 
suls bore  it  without  impatience:  but  at  one  time  indignation, 
at  another  shame,  agitated  the  breasts  of  the  ignorant  multi- 
tude, and  diverted  their  attention  from  intestine  evils;  they 
were  unwilling  that  the  enemy  should  remain  unpunished; 
they  did  not  wish  success  either  to  the  patricians  or  the  con- 
suls; foreign  and  domestic  hatred  struggled  for  the  mastery 
in  their  minds :  at  length  the  former  prevailed,  so  haughty  and 
insolent  were  the  jeers  of  the  enemy;  they  crowded  in  a  body 
to  the  general's  tent;  they  desired  battle,  they  demanded  that 
the  signal  should  be  given.  The  consuls  conferred  together 
as  if  to  deliberate;  they  continued  the  conference  for  a  long 
time:  they  were  desirous  of  fighting,  but  that  desire  they 
considered  should  be  checked  and  concealed,  that  by  opposi- 
tion and  delay  they  might  increase  the  ardour  of  the  soldiery 
now  that  it  was  once  roused.  The  answer  was  returned  that 
the  matter  in  question  was  premature,  that  it  was  not  yet  time 
for  fighting:  let  them  keep  within  their  camp.  They  then 
issued  a  proclamation,  that  they  should  abstain  from  fight- 
ing: if  any  one  fought  without  orders,  they  would  punish 
him  as  an  enemy.  When  they  were  thus  dismissed,  their 
eagerness  for  fighting  increased  in  proportion  as  they  believed 
the  consuls  were  less  disposed  for  it;  the  enemy,  moreover, 
who  now  showed  themselves  with  greater  boldness,  as  soon 
as  it  was  known  that  the  consuls  had  determined  not  to  fight, 
further  kindled  their  ardour.  For  they  supposed  that  they 
could  insult  them  with  impunity;  that  the  soldiers  were  not 
trusted  with  arms;  that  the  affair  would  explode  in  a  violent 
mutiny;  that  an  end  had  come  to  the  Roman  Empire.  Re- 
lying on  these  hopes,  they  ran  up  to  the  gates,  heaped  abuse 
on  the  Romans,  and  with  difficulty  refrained  from  assaulting 
the  camp.  Then  indeed  the  Romans  could  no  longer  endure 


I26  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.480 

their  insults:  they  ran  from  every  quarter  of  the  camp  to  the 
consuls:  they  no  longer,  as  formerly,  put  forth  their  demands 
with  reserve,  through  the  mediation  of  the  centurions  of  the 
first  rank,  but  all  proceeded  indiscriminately  with  loud  clam- 
ours. The  affair  was  now  ripe ;  yet  still  they  hesitated.  Then 
Fabius,  as  his  colleague  was  now  inclined  to  give  way  in 
consequence  of  his  dread  of  mutiny  in  face  of  the  increasing 
uproar,  having  commanded  silence  by  sound  of  trumpet,  said: 
"  I  know  that  those  soldiers  are  able  to  conquer,  Gneius  Man- 
lius:  by  their  own  conduct  they  themselves  have  prevented 
me  from  knowing  that  they  are  willing.  Accordingly,  I  have 
resolved  and  determined  not  to  give  the  signal,  unless  they 
swear  that  they  will  return  from  this  battle  victorious.  The 
soldier  has  once  deceived  the  Roman  consul  in  the  field,  the 
gods  he  will  never  deceive."  There  was  a  centurion,  Marcus 
Flavoleius,  one  of  the  foremost  in  demanding  battle:  said  he, 
"  Marcus  Fabius,  I  will  return  victorious  from  the  field."  He 
invoked  upon  himself,  should  he  deceive  them,  the  wrath  of 
Father  Jove,  Mars  Gradivus,  and  the  other  gods.  After  him 
in  succession  the  whole  army  severally  took  the  same  oath. 
After  they  had  been  sworn,  the  signal  was  given:  they  took 
up  arms  and  marched  into  battle,  full  of  rage  and  of  hope. 
They  bade  the  Etruscans  now  utter  their  reproaches:  now 
severally  demanded  that  the  enemy,  so  ready  of  tongue, 
should  face  them,  now  that  they  were  armed.  On  that  day, 
"both  commons  and  patricians  alike  showed  distinguished 
bravery:  the  Fabian  family  shone  forth  most  conspicuous: 
they  were  determined  to  recover  in  that  battle  the  affections 
of  the  commons,  estranged  by  many  civil  contests. 

The  army  was  drawn  up  in  order  of  battle;  nor  did  the 
Veientine  foe  and  the  Etruscan  legions  decline  the  contest. 
They  entertained  an  almost  certain  hope  that  the  Romans 
would  no  more  fight  with  them  than  they  had  with  the 
^Equans;  that  even  some  more  serious  attempt  was  not  to  be 
despaired  of,  considering  the  sorely  irritated  state  of  their 
feelings,  and  the  critical  condition  of  affairs.  The  result 
turned  out  altogether  different:  for  never  before  in  any  other 
war  did  the  Roman  soldiers  enter  the  field  with  greater  fury, 
so  exasperated  were  they  by  the  taunts  of  the  enemy  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  dilatoriness  of  the  consuls  on  the  other. 
Before  the  Etruscans  had  time  to  form  their  ranks,  their 
javelins  having  been  rather  thrown  away  at  random,  in  the 
first  confusion,  than  aimed  at  the  enemy,  the  battle  had  be- 
come a  hand-to-hand  encounter,  even  with  swords,  in  which 
the  fury  of  war  rages  most  fiercely.  Among  the  foremost 


B.  C.  480]          BATTLE  WITH  THE  ETRUSCANS 

the  Fabian  family  was  distinguished  for  the  sight  it  afforded 
and  the  example  it  presented  to  its  fellow-citizens;  one  of 
these,  Quintus  Fabius,  who  had  been  consul  two  years  before, 
as  he  advanced  at  the  head  of  his  men  against  a  dense  body 
of  Veientines,  and  incautiously  engaged  amid  numerous 
parties  of  the  enemy,  received  a  sword-thrust  through  the 
breast  at  the  hands  of  a  Tuscan  emboldened  by  his  bodily 
strength  and  skill  in  arms:  on  the  weapon  being  extracted, 
Fabius  fell  forward  on  the  wound.  Both  armies  felt  the  fall 
of  this  one  man,  and  the  Romans  in  consequence  were  be- 
ginning to  give  way,  when  the  consul  Marcus  Fabius  leaped 
over  the  body  of  his  prostrate  kinsman,  and,  holding  his 
buckler  in  front,  cried  out:  "  Is  this  what  you  swore,  soldiers, 
that  you  would  return  to  the  camp  in  flight?  are  you  so  afraid 
of  your  most  cowardly  foes,  rather  than  of  Jupiter  and  Mars, 
by  whom  you  have  sworn?  Well,  then,  I,  who  have  taken 
no  oath,  will  either  return  victorious,  or  will  fall  fighting  here 
beside  thee,  Quintus  Fabius."  Then  Caeso  Fabius,  the  consul 
of  the  preceding  year,  addressed  the  consul:  "  Brother,  is  it 
by  these  words  you  think  you  will  prevail  on  them  to  fight? 
the  gods,  by  whom  they  have  sworn,  will  bring  it  about. 
Let  us  also,  as  becomes  men  of  noble  birth,  as  is  worthy  of 
the  Fabian  name,  kindle  the  courage  of  the  soldiers  by  fight- 
ing rather  than  by  exhortation."  Thus  the  two  Fabii  rushed 
forward  to  the  front  with  spears  presented,  and  carried  the 
whole  line  with  them. 

The  battle  being  thus  restored  in  one  quarter,  Gnaeus  Man- 
lius,  the  consul,  with  no  less  ardour,  encouraged  the  fight  on 
the  other  wing,  where  the  course  of  the  fortune  of  war  was 
almost  identical.  For,  as  the  soldiers  eagerly  followed  Quin- 
tus Fabius  on  the  one  wing,  so  did  they  follow  the  consul 
Manlius  on  this,  as  he  was  driving  the  enemy  before  him 
now  nearly  routed.  When,  having  received  a  severe  wound, 
he  retired  from  the  battle,  they  fell  back,  supposing  that  he 
was  slain,  and  would  have  abandoned  the  position  had  not 
the  other  consul,  galloping  at  full  speed  to  that  quarter  with 
some  troops  of  horse,  supported  their  drooping  fortune,  cry- 
ing out  that  his  colleague  was  still  alive,  that  he  himself  was 
now  at  hand  victorious,  having  routed  the  other  wing.  Man- 
lius also  showed  himself  in  sight  of  all  to  restore  the  battle. 
The  well-known  faces  of  the  two  consuls  kindled  the  courage 
of  the  soldiers:  at  the  same  time,  too,  the  enemy's  line  was 
now  thinner,  since,  relying  on  their  superior  numbers,  they 
had  drawn  off  their  reserves  and  despatched  them  to  storm 
the  camp.  This  was  assaulted  without  much  resistance:  and, 


128  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [8.0.480 

while  they  wasted  time,  bethinking  themselves  of  plunder 
rather  than  fighting,  the  Roman  triarii,1  who  had  not  been 
able  to  sustain  the  first  shock,  having  sent  a  report  to  the 
consuls  of  the  position  of  affairs,  returned  in  a  compact  body 
to  the  prsetorium,2  and  of  their  own  accord  renewed  the  battle. 
The  consul  Manlius  also  having  returned  to  the  camp,  and 
posted  soldiers  at  all  the  gates,  had  blocked  up  every  passage 
against  the  enemy.  This  desperate  situation  aroused  the  fury 
rather  than  the  bravery  of  the  Etruscans;  for  when,  rushing 
on  wherever  hope  held  out  the  prospect  of  escape,  they  had 
advanced  with  several  fruitless  efforts,  a  body  of  young  men 
attacked  the  consul  himself,  who  was  conspicuous  by  his 
arms.  The  first  missiles  were  intercepted  by  those  who  stood 
around  him;  afterward  their  violence  could  not  be  withstood. 
The  consul  fell,  smitten  with  a  mortal  wound,  and  all  around 
him  were  put  to  flight.  The  courage  of  the  Etruscans  in- 
creased. Terror  drove  the  Romans  in  dismay  through  the 
entire  camp;  and  matters  would  have  come  to  extremities  had 
not  the  lieutenants,3  hastily  seizing  the  body  of  the  consul, 
opened  a  passage  for  the  enemy  at  one  gate.4  Through  this 
they  rushed  out ;  and  going  away  in  the  utmost  disorder,  they 
fell  in  with  the  other  consul,  who  had  been  victorious;  there 
a  second  time  they  were  cut  down  and  routed  in  every  direc- 
tion. A  glorious  victory  was  won,  saddened,  however,  by  two 
such  illustrious  deaths.  The  consul,  therefore,  on  the  senate 
voting  him  a  triumph,  replied,  that  if  the  army  could  tri- 
umph without  its  general,  he  would  readily  accede  to  it  in 
consideration  of  its  distinguished  service  in  that  war:  that 
for  his  own  part,  as  his  family  was  plunged  in  grief  in  conse- 
quence of  the  death  of  his  brother  Quintus  Fabius,  and  the 
commonwealth  in  some  degree  bereaved  by  the  loss  of  one 
of  her  consuls,  he  would  not  accept  the  laurel  disfigured  by 
public  and  private  grief.  The  triumph  thus  declined  was  more 
illustrious  than  any  triumph  actually  enjoyed;  so  true  it  is, 
that  glory  refused  at  a  fitting  moment  sometimes  returns  with 
accumulated  lustre.  He  next  celebrated  the  two  funerals  of 

1  These  were  veterans  and  formed  the  third  line.  The  first  were  the 
"  hastati,"  so  called  from  their  carrying  long  spears,  which  were  later 
discarded  for  heavy  javelins.  The  second  were  the  "principes,"  the 
main  line. — D.  O. 

*  The  space  assigned  for  the  general's  tent. — D.  O. 

*  The  legati  of  a  general   were  at  once   his  council  of  war  and  his 
staff.— D.  O. 

4  There  is  much  in  the  description  of  this  battle  not  easy  to  under- 
stand, and  I  am  inclined  to  believe  it  was  at  least  no  better  than  drawn. 
The  plundered  camp,  the  defeat  of  the  triarii,  and  the  failure  to  mention 
pursuit  or  consequences,  all  favour  this  supposition. — D.  O. 


B.C.  480-479]  CONDUCT  OF   FABIUS  129 

his  colleague  and  brother,  one  after  the  other,  himself  deliv- 
ering the  funeral  oration  over  both,  wherein,  by  yielding  up 
to  them  the  praise  that  was  his  own  due,  he  himself  obtained 
the  greatest  share  of  it;  and,  not  unmindful  of  that  which 
he  had  determined  upon  at  the  beginning  of  his  consulate, 
namely,  the  regaining  the  affection  of  the  people,  he  distrib- 
uted the  wounded  soldiers  among  the  patricians  to  be  attended 
to.  Most  of  them  were  given  to  the  Fabii :  nor  were  they 
treated  with  greater  attention  anywhere  else.  From  this  time 
the  Fabii  began  to  be  popular,  and  that  not  by  aught  save 
such  conduct  as  was  beneficial  to  the  state. 

Accordingly,  Caeso  Fabius,  having  been  elected  consul 
with  Titus  Verginius  not  more  with  the  good-will  of  the  sena- 
tors than  of  the  commons,  gave  no  attention  either  to  wars, 
or  levies,  or  anything  else  in  preference,  until,  the  hope  of 
concord  being  now  in  some  measure  assured,  the  feelings 
of  the  commons  should  be  united  with  those  of  the  senators 
at  the  earliest  opportunity.  Accordingly,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  year  he  proposed  that  before  any  tribune  should 
stand  forth  as  a  supporter  of  the  agrarian  law,  the  patricians 
themselves  should  be  beforehand  in  bestowing  the  gift  un- 
asked and  making  it  their  own:  that  they  should  distribute 
among  the  commons  the  land  taken  from  the  enemy  in  as 
equal  a  proportion  as  possible;  that  it  was  but  just  that  those 
should  enjoy  it  by  whose  blood  and  labour  it  had  been  won. 
The  patricians  rejected  the  proposal  with  scorn:  some  even 
complained  that  the  once  vigorous  spirit  of  Caeso  was  running 
riot,  and  decaying  through  a  surfeit  of  glory.  There  were 
afterward  no  party  struggles  in  the  city.  The  Latins,  how- 
ever, were  harassed  by  the  incursions  of  the  ^quans.  Caeso 
being  sent  thither  with  an  army,  crossed  into  the  territory  of 
the  ^Equans  themselves  to  lay  it  waste.  The  ^Equans  retired 
into  the  towns,  and  kept  themselves  within  the  walls:  on  that 
account  no  battle  worth  mentioning  was  fought. 

However,  a  reverse  was  sustained  at  the  hands  of  the 
Veientine  foe  owing  to  the  rashness  of  the  other  consul;  and 
the  army  would  have  been  all  cut  off,  had  not  Caeso  Fabius 
come  to  their  assistance  in  time.  From  that  time  there  was 
neither  peace  nor  war  with  the  Veientines:  their  mode  of  op- 
eration had  now  come  very  near  to  the  form  of  brigandage. 
They  retired  before  the  Roman  troops  into  the  city ;  when  they 
perceived  that  the  troops  were  drawn  off,  they  made  incursions 
into  the  country,  alternately  mocking  war  with  peace  and 
peace  with  war.  Thus  the  matter  could  neither  be  dropped 
altogether,  nor  brought  to  a  conclusion.  Besides,  other  wars 


1  30  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [u.  c.  479 


were  threatening  either  at  the  moment,  as  from  the 
and  Volscians,  who  remained  inactive  no  longer  than  was 
necessary,  to  allow  the  recent  smart  of  their  late  disaster  to 
pass  away,  or  at  no  distant  date,  as  it  was  evident  that  the  Sa- 
bines,  ever  hostile,  and  all  Etruria  would  soon  begin  to  stir  up 
war:  but  the  Veientines,  a  constant  rather  than  a  formidable 
enemy,  kept  their  minds  in  a  state  of  perpetual  uneasiness  by 
petty  annoyances  more  frequently  than  by  any  real  danger  to 
be  apprehended  from  them,  because  they  could  at  no  time  be 
neglected,  and  did  not  suffer  the  Romans  to  turn  their  atten- 
tion elsewhere.  Then  the  Fabian  family  approached  the  sen- 
ate: the  consul  spoke  in  the  name  of  the  family:  "  Conscript 
fathers,  the  Veientine  war  requires,  as  you  know,  an  unremit- 
ting rather  than  a  strong  defence.  Do  you  attend  to  other 
wars:  assign  the  Fabii  as  enemies  to  the  Veientines.  We 
pledge  ourselves  that  the  majesty  of  the  Roman  name  shall 
be  safe  in  that  quarter.  That  war,  as  if  it  were  a  family  mat- 
ter, it  is  our  determination  to  conduct  at  our  own  private 
expense.  In  regard  to  it,  let  the  republic  be  spared  the  ex- 
pense of  soldiers  and  money."  The  warmest  thanks  were 
returned  to  them.  The  consul,  leaving  the  senate-house,  ac- 
companied by  the  Fabii  in  a  body,  who  had  been  standing  in 
the  porch  of  the  senate-house,  awaiting  the  decree  of  the  sen- 
ate, returned  home.  They  were  ordered  to  attend  on  the  fol- 
lowing day  in  arms  at  the  consul's  gate:  they  then  retired  to 
their  homes. 

The  report  spread  through  the  entire  city;  they  extolled 
the  Fabii  to  the  skies:  that  a  single  family  had  undertaken 
the  burden  of  the  state;  that  the  Veientine  war  had  now  be- 
come a  private  concern,  a  private  quarrel.  If  there  were  two 
families  of  the  same  strength  in  the  city,  let  them  demand, 
the  one  the  Volscians  for  itself,  the  other  the  ^Equans;  that 
all  the  neighbouring  states  could  be  subdued,  while  the 
Roman  people  all  the  time  enjoyed  profound  peace.  The  day 
following,  the  Fabii  took  up  arms;  they  assembled  where 
they  had  been  ordered.  The  consul,  coming  forth  in  his  mili- 
tary robe,  beheld  the  whole  family  in  the  porch  drawn  up  in 
order  of  march;  being  received  into  the  centre,  he  ordered 
the  standards  to  be  advanced.  Never  did  an  army  march 
through  the  city,  either  smaller  in  number,  or  more  distin- 
guished in  renown  and  more  admired  by  all.  Three  hundred 
and  six  soldiers,  all  patricians,  all  of  one  family,  not  one  of 
whom  an  honest  senate  would  reject  as  a  leader  under  any 
circumstances  whatever,  proceeded  on  their  march,  threat- 
ening the  Veientine  state  with  destruction  by  the  might  of  a 


B.  C.  479]  PATRIOTISM   OF   THE   FABII  I3! 

single  family.  A  crowd  followed,  one  part  belonging  to  them- 
selves, consisting  of  their  kinsmen  and  comrades,  who  con- 
templated no  half  measures,  either  as  to  their  hope  or  anxiety, 
but  everything  on  a  grand  scale :  l  the  other  aroused  by  solici- 
tude for  the  public  weal,  unable  to  express  their  esteem  and 
admiration.  They  bade  them  proceed  in  their  brave  resolve, 
proceed  with  happy  omens,  and  render  the  issue  proportionate 
to  the  undertaking:  thence  to  expect  consulships  and  tri- 
umphs, all  rewards,  all  honours  from  them.  As  they  passed 
the  Capitol  and  the  citadel,  and  the  other  sacred  edifices,  they 
offered  up  prayers  to  all  the  gods  that  presented  themselves 
to  their  sight,  or  to  their  mind,  that  they  would  send  forward 
that  band  with  prosperity  and  success,  and  soon  send  them 
back  safe  into  their  country  to  their  parents.  In  vain  were 
these  prayers  uttered.  Having  set  out  on  their  luckless  road 
by  the  right-hand  arch  of  the  Carmental  gate,2  they  arrived  at 
the  river  Cremera :  *  this  appeared  a  favourable  situation  for 
fortifying  an  outpost. 

Lucius  JEmilius  and  Gaius  Servilius  were  then  created 
consuls.  And  as  long  as  there  was  nothing  else  to  occupy 
them  but  mutual  devastations,  the  Fabii  were  not  only  able 
to  protect  their  garrison,  but  through  the  entire  tract,  where 
the  Tuscan  territory  adjoins  the  Roman,  they  protected  all 
their  own  districts  and  ravaged  those  of  the  enemy,  spreading 
their  forces  along  both  frontiers.  There  was  afterward  a 
cessation,  though  not  for  long,  of  these  depredations:  while 
both  the  Veientines,  having  sent  for  an  army  from  Etruria,4 
assaulted  the  outpost  at  the  Cremera,  and  the  Roman  troops, 
brought  up  by  the  consul  Lucius  ^Emilius,  came  to  a  close 
engagement  in  the  field  with  the  Etruscans;  the  Veientines, 
however,  had  scarcely  time  to  draw  up  their  line:  for,  during 
the  first  alarm,  while  they  were  entering  the  lines  behind 
their  colours,  and  they  were  stationing  their  reserves,  a  bri- 
gade of  Roman  cavalry,  charging  them  suddenly  in  flank, 
deprived  them  of  all  opportunity  not  only  of  opening  the  fight, 
but  even  of  standing  their  ground.  Thus  being  driven  back 
to  the  Red  Rocks  5  (where  they  had  pitched  their  camp),  as 

1  It  was  to  be  victory  or  annihilation. — D.  O. 

*  So  called  from  the  altar  of  Carmenta,  which  stood  near  it.     It  was 
located  in  or  near  what  is  now  the  Piazza  Montanara,  and  was  always 
after  considered  a  gate  of  evil  omen. — D.  O. 

1  Now  the  Valchetta.— D.  O. 

4  Probably  of  mercenaries,  as  the  Veientines  are  alluded  to  throughout 
the  paragraph  as  commanding,  and  it  was  apparently  not  a  case  of  alli- 
ance.— D.  O. 

•  On  the  Via  Flaminia  (near  the  grotta  rossa). 


I32  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.478-476 

suppliants  they  sued  for  peace ;  and,  after  it  was  granted,  ow- 
ing to  the  natural  inconsistency  of  their  minds,  they  regretted 
it  even  before  the  Roman  garrison  was  withdrawn  from  the 
Cremera. 

Again  the  Veientine  state  had  to  contend  with  the  Fabii 
without  any  additional  military  armament:  and  not  merely 
did  they  make  raids  into  each  other's  territories,  or  sudden 
attacks  upon  those  carrying  on  the  raids,  but  they  fought  re- 
peatedly on  level  ground,  and  in  pitched  battles:  and  one 
family  of  the  Roman  people  oftentimes  gained  the  victory 
over  an  entire  Etruscan  state,  and  a  most  powerful  one  for 
those  times.  This  at  first  appeared  mortifying  and  humiliat- 
ing to  the  Veientines:  then  they  conceived  the  design,  sug- 
gested by  the  state  of  affairs,  of  surprising  their  daring  enemy 
by  an  ambuscade;  they  were  even  glad  that  the  confidence 
of  the  Fabii  was  increasing  owing  to  their  great  success. 
Wherefore  cattle  were  frequently  driven  in  the  path  of  the 
plundering  parties,  as  if  they  had  fallen  in  their  way  by  acci- 
dent, and  tracts  of  land  left  abandoned  by  the  flight  of  the 
peasants:  and  reserve  bodies  of  armed  men,  sent  to  prevent 
the  devastations,  retreated  more  frequently  in  pretended  than 
in  real  alarm.  By  this  time  the  Fabii  had  conceived  such  con- 
tempt for  the  enemy  that  they  believed  that  their  arms,  as 
yet  invincible,  could  not  be  resisted  either  in  any  place  or  on 
any  occasion:  this  presumption  carried  them  so  far  that  at 
the  sight  of  some  cattle  at  a  distance  from  Cremera,  with  an 
extensive  plain  lying  between,  they  ran  down  to  them,  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  some  scattered  bodies  of  the  enemy  were 
visible:  and  when,  anticipating  nothing,  and  in  disorderly 
haste,  they  had  passed  the  ambuscade  placed  on  either  side 
of  the  road  itself,  and,  dispersed  in  different  directions,  had 
begun  to  carry  off  the  cattle  that  were  straying  about,  as  is 
usual  when  frightened,  the  enemy  started  suddenly  in  a  body 
from  their  ambuscade,  and  surrounded  them  both  in  front 
and  on  every  side.  At  first  the  noise  of  their  shouts,  spread- 
ing, terrified  them;  then  weapons  assailed  them  from  every 
side:  and,  as  the  Etruscans  closed  in,  they  also  were  com- 
pelled, hemmed  in  as  they  were  by  an  unbroken  body  of  armed 
men,  to  form  themselves  into  a  square  of  narrower  compass 
the  more  the  enemy  pressed  on:  this  circumstance  rendered 
both  their  own  scarcity  of  numbers  noticeable  and  the  supe- 
rior numbers  of  the  Etruscans,  whose  ranks  were  crowded 
in  a  narrow  space.  Then,  having  abandoned  the  plan  of  fight- 
ing, which  they  had  directed  with  equal  effort  in  every  quar- 
ter, they  all  turned  their  forces  toward  one  point;  straining 


B.  c.  478-476]      DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  FABII  133 

every  effort  in  that  direction,  both  with  their  arms  and  bodies, 
and  forming  themselves  into  a  wedge,  they  forced  a  pas- 
sage. The  way  led  to  a  gradually  ascending  hill:  here  they 
first  halted:  presently,  as  soon  as  the  higher  ground  afforded 
them  time  to  gain  breath,  and  to  recover  from  so  great  a 
panic,  they  repulsed  the  foe  as  they  ascended:  and  the  small 
band,  assisted  by  the  advantages  of  the  ground,  was  gaining 
the  victory,  had  not  a  party  of  the  Veientines,  sent  round  the 
ridge  of  the  hill,  made  their  way  to  the  summit:  thus  the 
enemy  again  got  possession  of  the  higher  ground;  all  the 
Fabii  were  cut  down  to  a  man,  and  the  fort  was  taken  by  as- 
sault: it  is  generally  agreed  that  three  hundred  and  six  were 
slain;  that  one  only,  who  had  nearly  attained  the  age  of 
puberty,  survived,  who  was  to  be  the  stock  for  the  Fabian 
family,  and  was  destined  to  prove  the  greatest  support  of  the 
Roman  people  in  dangerous  emergencies  on  many  occasions 
both  at  home  and  in  war.1 

At  the  time  when  this  disaster  was  sustained,  Gaius  Hora- 
tius  and  Titus  Menenius  were  consuls.  Menenius  was  im- 
mediately sent  against  the  Tuscans,  now  elated  with  victory. 
On  that  occasion  also  an  unsuccessful  battle  was  fought,  and 
the  enemy  took  possession  of  the  Janiculum:  and  the  city 
would  have  been  besieged,  since  scarcity  of  provisions  dis- 
tressed them  in  addition  to  the  war — for  the  Etruscans  had 
passed  the  Tiber — had  not  the  consul  Horatius  been  recalled 
from  the  Volscians;  and  so  closely  did  that  war  approach  the 
very  walls,  that  the  first  battle  was  fought  near  the  Temple  of 
Hope  2  with  doubtful  success,  and  a  second  at  the  Colline  gate. 
There,  although  the  Romans  gained  the  upper  hand  by  only 
a  trifling  advantage,  yet  that  contest  rendered  the  soldiers 
more  serviceable  for  future  battles  by  the  restoration  of  their 
former  courage. 

Aulus  Verginius  and  Spurius  Servilius  were  next  chosen 
consuls.  After  the  defeat  sustained  in  the  last  battle,  the 
Veientines  declined  an  engagement.3  Ravages  were  com- 
mitted, and  they  made  repeated  attacks  in  every  direction 
upon  the  Roman  territory  from  the  Janiculum,  as  if  from  a 
fortress :  nowhere  were  cattle  or  husbandmen  safe.  They 
were  afterward  entrapped  by  the  same  stratagem  as  that  by 

1  This  story  has  been  much  questioned  by  learned  commentators.  I 
see  nothing  improbable  in  it  if  we  pare  down  the  exploits  a  little,  and  the 
evidence,  such  as  it  is,  is  all  pro. — D.  O. 

*  As  this  temple  was  about  a  mile  from  the  city,  it  is  probable  the  Ro- 
mans were  defeated,  and  that  the  second  fight  at  the  gate  means  simply 
that  they  repulsed  an  assault  on  the  walls. — D.  O. 

*  That  is,  did  not  renew  their  assault  on  the  walls. — D.  O. 


134  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  476 

which  they  had  entrapped  the  Fabii:  having  pursued  some 
cattle  which  had  been  intentionally  driven  on  in  all  directions 
to  decoy  them,  they  fell  into  an  ambuscade ;  in  proportion  as 
they  were  more  numerous,1  the  slaughter  was  greater.  The 
violent  resentment  resulting  from  this  disaster  was  the  cause 
and  beginning  of  one  still  greater:  for  having  crossed  the 
Tiber  by  night,  they  attempted  to  assault  the  camp  of  the 
consul  Servilius;  being  repulsed  from  thence  with  great 
slaughter,  they  with  difficulty  made  good  their  retreat  to  the 
Janiculum.  The  consul  himself  also  immediately  crossed  the 
Tiber,  and  fortified  his  camp  at  the  foot  of  the  Janiculum:  at 
daybreak  on  the  following  morning,  being  both  somewhat 
elated  by  the  success  of  the  battle  of  the  day  before,  more, 
however,  because  the  scarcity  of  corn  forced  him  to  adopt 
measures,  however  dangerous,  provided  only  they  were  more 
expeditious,  he  rashly  marched  his  army  up  the  steep  of  the 
Janiculum  to  the  camp  of  the  enemy,  and,  being  repulsed  from 
thence  with  more  disgrace  than  when  he  had  repulsed  them  on 
the  preceding  day,  he  was  saved,  both  himself  and  his  army,  by 
the  intervention  of  his  colleague.  The  Etruscans,  hemmed 
in  between  the  two  armies,  and  presenting  their  rear  to  the  one 
and  the  other  by  turns,  were  completely  destroyed.  Thus  the 
Veientine  war  was  crushed  by  a  successful  piece  of  audacity.2 
Together  with  peace,  provisions  came  in  to  the  city  in 
greater  abundance,  both  by  reason  of  corn  having  been 
brought  in  from  Campania,  and,  as  soon  as  the  fear  of  want, 
which  every  one  felt  was  likely  to  befall  himself,  left  them,  by 
the  corn  being  brought  out,  which  had  been  stored.  Then 
their  minds  once  more  became  wanton  from  plenty  and  ease, 
and  they  sought  at  home  their  former  subjects  of  com- 
plaint, now  that  there  was  none  abroad;  the  tribunes  began 
to  excite  the  commons  by  their  poisonous  charm,  the  agrarian 
law:  they  roused  them  against  the  senators  who  opposed  it, 
and  not  only  against  them  as  a  body,  but  against  particular 
individuals.  Quintus  Considius  and  Titus  Genucius,  the  pro- 
posers of  the  agrarian  law,  appointed  a  day  of  trial  for  Titus 
Menenius:  the  loss  of  the  fort  of  Cremera,  while  the  consul 
had  his  standing  camp  at  no  great  distance  from  thence,  was 
the  cause  of  his  unpopularity.  This  crushed  him,  though 
both  the  senators  had  exerted  themselves  in  his  behalf  with 

1  Evidently  only  a  small  detachment,  since  they  were  in  condition  to 
assault  a  fortified  consular  camp  despite  their  defeat. — D.  O. 

*<The  story  of  this  war  is  much  more  doubtful  than  the  exploit  of  the 
Fabii,  and  Livy,  as  usual,  furnishes  the  material  for  his  own  criticism. — 
D.  O. 


B.  C.  476]    TRIALS  OF  MENENIUS  AND  SERVILIUS  135 

no  less  earnestness  than  in  behalf  of  Coriolanus,  and  the  popu- 
larity of  his  father  Agrippa  was  not  yet  forgotten.  The  trib- 
unes, however,  acted  leniently  in  the  matter  of  the  fine :  though 
they  had  arraigned  him  for  a  capital  offence,  they  imposed  on 
him,  when  found  guilty,  a  fine  of  only  two  thousand  asses. 
This  proved  fatal  to  him.  They  say  that  he  could  not  brook 
the  disgrace  and  anguish  of  mind:  and  that,  in  consequence, 
he  was  carried  off  by  disease.  Another  senator,  Spurius  Ser- 
vilius,  was  soon  after  arraigned,  as  soon  as  he  went  out  of 
office,  a  day  of  trial  having  been  appointed  for  him  by  the 
tribunes,  Lucius  Caedicius  and  Titus  Statius,  immediately  at 
the  beginning  of  the  year,  in  the  consulship  of  Gaius  Nau- 
tius  and  Publius  Valerius :  he  did  not,  however,  like  Me- 
nenius,  meet  the  attacks  of  the  tribunes  with  supplications  on 
the  part  of  himself  and  the  patricians,  but  with  firm  reliance 
on  his  own  integrity  and  his  personal  popularity.  The  battle 
with  the  Tuscans  at  the  Janiculum  was  also  the  charge  brought 
against  him :  but  being  a  man  of  impetuous  spirit,  as  he  had  for- 
merly done  in  time  of  public  peril,  so  now  in  the  danger  which 
threatened  himself,  he  dispelled  it  by  boldly  meeting  it,  by  con- 
futing not  only  the  tribunes  but  the  commons  also,  in  a 
haughty  speech,  and  upbraiding  them  with  the  condemnation 
and  death  of  Titus  Menenius,  by  the  good  offices  of  whose 
father  the  commons  had  formerly  been  re-established,  and  now 
had  those  magistrates  and  enjoyed  those  laws,  by  virtue  of 
which  they  then  acted  so  insolently:  his  colleague  Verginius 
also,  who  was  brought  forward  as  a  witness,  aided  him  by  as- 
signing to  him  a  share  of  his  own  glory:  however — so  had 
they  changed  their  mind — the  condemnation  of  Menenius  was 
of  greater  service  to  him. 

The  contests  at  home  were  now  concluded.  A  war  against 
the  Veientines,  with  whom  the  Sabines  had  united  their  forces, 
broke  out  afresh.  The  consul  Publius  Valerius,  after  auxilia- 
ries had  been  sent  for  from  the  Latins  and  Hernicans,  being 
despatched  to  Veii  with  an  army,  immediately  attacked  the 
Sabine  camp,  which  had  been  pitched  before  the  walls  of  their 
allies,  and  occasioned  such  great  consternation  that,  while 
scattered  in  different  directions,  they  sallied  forth  in  small  par- 
ties to  repel  the  assault  of  the  enemy,  the  gate  which  he  first 
attacked  was  taken :  then  within  the  rampart  a  massacre  rather 
than  a  battle  took  place.  From  within  the  camp  the  alarm 
spread  also  into  the  city;  the  Veientines  ran  to  arms  in  as 
great  a  panic  as  if  Veii  had  been  taken :  some  came  up  to  the 
support  of  the  Sabines,  others  fell  upon  the  Romans,  who  had 
directed  all  their  force  against  the  camp.  For  a  little  while 


LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  475-473 

they  were  disconcerted  and  thrown  into  confusion ;  then  they 
in  like  manner  formed  two  fronts  and  made  a  stand :  and  the 
cavalry,  being  commanded  by  the  consul  to  charge,  routed  the 
Tuscans  and  put  them  to  flight ;  and  in  the  self-same  hour  two 
armies  and  two  of  the  most  influential  and  powerful  of  the 
neighbouring  states  were  vanquished.  While  these  events 
were  taking  place  at  Veii,  the  Volscians  and  ^Equans  had 
pitched  their  camp  in  Latin  territory,  and  laid  waste  their  fron- 
tiers. The  Latins,  being  joined  by  the  Hernicans,  without 
either  a  Roman  general  or  Roman  auxiliaries,  by  their  own 
efforts,  stripped  them  of  their  camp.  Besides  recovering 
their  own  effects,  they  obtained  immense  booty.  The  consul 
Gaius  Nautius,  however,  was  sent  against  the  Volscians  from 
Rome.  The  custom,  I  suppose,  was  not  approved  of,  that 
the  allies  should  carry  on  wars  with  their  own  forces  and  ac- 
cording to  their  own  plans  without  a  Roman  general  and 
troops.  There  was  no  kind  of  injury  and  petty  annoyance 
that  was  not  practised  against  the  Volscians ;  they  could  not, 
however,  be  prevailed  on  to  come  to  an  engagement  in  the 
field. 

Lucius  Furius  and  Gaius  Manlius  were  the  next  consuls. 
The  Veientines  fell  to  Manlius  as  his  province.  No  war,  how- 
ever, followed:  a  truce  for  forty  years  was  granted  them  at 
their  request,  but  they  were  ordered  to  provide  corn  and  pay 
for  the  soldiers.  Disturbance  at  home  immediately  followed 
in  close  succession  on  peace  abroad :  the  commons  were 
goaded  by  the  spur  employed  by  the  tribunes  in  the  shape  of 
the  agrarian  law.  The  consuls,  no  whit  intimidated  by  the 
condemnation  of  Menenius,  nor  by  the  danger  of  Servilius,  re- 
sisted with  their  utmost  might;  Gnaeus  Genucius,  a  tribune 
of  the  people,  dragged  the  consuls  before  the  court  on  their 
going  out  of  office.  Lucius  ^milius  and  Opiter  Verginius 
entered  upon  the  consulate.  Instead  of  Verginius  I  find  Vo- 
piscus  Julius  given  as  consul  in  some  annals.  In  this  year 
(whoever  were  the  consuls)  Furius  and  Manlius,  being  sum- 
moned to  trial  before  the  people,  in  sordid  garb  solicited  the 
aid  of  the  younger  patricians  as  much  as  that  of  the  commons : 
they  advised,  they  cautioned  them  to  keep  themselves  from 
public  offices  and  the  administration  of  public  affairs,  and  in- 
deed to  consider  the  consular  fasces,  the  toga  praetexta  and 
curule  chair,  as  nothing  else  but  a  funeral  parade:  that  when 
decked  with  these  splendid  insignia,  as  with  fillets,1  they  were 
doomed  to  death.  But  if  the  charms  of  the  consulate  were  so 

1  After  the  manner  of  animals  about  to  be  sacrificed.— D.  O. 


B.  C.  473]  MURDER  OF  GN^US  GENUCIUS  13; 

great,  they  should  even  now  rest  satisfied  that  the  consulate 
was  held  in  captivity  and  crushed  by  the  tribunician  power; 
that  everything  had  to  be  done  by  the  consul,  at  the  beck  and 
command  of  the  tribune,  as  if  he  were  a  tribune's  beadle.  If  he 
stirred,  if  he  regarded  the  patricians  at  all,  if  he  thought  that 
there  existed  any  other  party  in  the  state  but  the  commons, 
let  him  set  before  his  eyes  the  banishment  of  Gnaeus  Marcius, 
the  condemnation  and  death  of  Menenius.  Fired  by  these 
words,  the  patricians  from  that  time  held  their  consultations 
not  in  public,  but  in  private  houses,  and  remote  from  the 
knowledge  of  the  majority,  at  which,  when  this  one  point  only 
was  agreed  on,  that  the  accused  must  be  rescued  either  by  fair 
means  or  foul,  the  most  desperate  proposals  were  most  ap- 
proved ;  nor  did  any  deed,  however  daring,  lack  a  supporter.1 
Accordingly,  on  the  day  of  trial,  when  the  people  stood  in 
the  forum  on  tiptoe  of  expectation,  they  at  first  began  to  feel 
surprised  that  the  tribune  did  not  come  down ;  then,  the  delay 
now  becoming  more  suspicious,  they  believed  that  he  was 
hindered  by  the  nobles,  and  complained  that  the  public  cause 
was  abandoned  and  betrayed.  At  length  those  who  had  been 
waiting  before  the  entrance  of  the  tribune's  residence,  an- 
nounced that  he  had  been  found  dead  in  his  house.  As  soon 
as  rumour  spread  the  news  through  the  whole  assembly,  just 
as  an  army  disperses  on  the  fall  of  its  general,  so  did  they  scat- 
ter in  different  directions.  Panic  chiefly  seized  the  tribunes, 
now  taught  by  their  colleague's  death  how  utterly  ineffectual 
was  the  aid  the  devoting  laws  afforded  them.2  Nor  did  the 
patricians  display  their  exultation  with  due  moderation;  and  so 
far  was  any  of  them  from  feeling  compunction  at  the  guilty  act, 
that  even  those  who  were  innocent  wished  to  be  considered 
to  have  perpetrated  it,  and  it  was  openly  declared  that  the  tribu- 
nician power  ought  to  be  subdued  by  chastisement. 

Immediately  after  this  victory,  that  involved  a  most  ruin- 
ous precedent,  a  levy  was  proclaimed ;  and,  the  tribunes  being 
now  overawed,  the  consuls  accomplished  their  object  without 
any  opposition.  Then  indeed  the  commons  became  enraged 
more  at  the  inactivity  of  the  tribunes  than  at  the  authority  of 
the  consuls :  they  declared  there  was  an  end  of  their  liberty : 
that  things  had  returned  to  their  old  condition :  that  the  tribu- 
nician power  had  died  along  with  Genucius  and  was  buried 
with  him ;  that  other  means  must  be  devised  and  adopted,  by 
which  the  patricians  might  be  resisted:  and  that  the  only  means 

1  This  was  probably  the  origin  of  the  "clubs"  of  young  patricians,  to 
which  so  much  of  the  later  violence  was  due. — D.  O. 

*  The  lex  sacrata,  which  declared  their  persons  inviolate. — D.  O. 


I38  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  473 

to  that  end  was  for  the  people  to  defend  themselves,  since 
they  had  no  other  help  :  that  four-and-twenty  lictors  waited  on 
the  consuls,  and  they  men  of  the  common  people :  that  noth- 
ing could  be  more  despicable,  or  weaker,  if  only  there  were 
persons  to  despise  them;  that  each  person  magnified  those 
things  and  made  them  objects  of  terror  to  himself.  When 
they  had  excited  one  another  by  these  words,  a  lictor  was  de- 
spatched by  the  consuls  to  Volero  Publilius,  a  man  belonging 
to  the  commons,  because  he  declared  that,  having  been  a  cen- 
turion, he  ought  not  to  be  made  a  common  soldier.  Volero 
appealed  to  the  tribunes.  When  no  one  came  to  his  assistance, 
the  consuls  ordered  the  man  to  be  stripped  and  the  rods  to  be 
got  ready.  "  I  appeal  to  the  people,"  said  Volero,  "  since  the 
tribunes  prefer  to  see  a  Roman  citizen  scourged  before  their 
eyes,  than  themselves  to  be  butchered  by  you  each  in  his  bed." 
The  more  vehemently  he  cried  out,  the  more  violently  did  the 
lictor  tear  off  his  clothes  and  strip  him.  Then  Volero,  being 
both  himself  a  man  of  great  bodily  strength,  and  aided  by  his 
partisans,  having  thrust  back  the  lictor,  retired  into  the  thick- 
est part  of  the  crowd,  where  the  outcry  of  those  who  expressed 
their  indignation  was  loudest,  crying  out:  "  I  appeal,  and  im- 
plore the  protection  of  the  commons;  assist  me,  fellow-citi- 
zens: assist  me,  fellow-soldiers:  it  is  no  use  to  wait  for  the 
tribunes,  who  themselves  stand  in  need  of  your  aid."  The 
men,  excited,  made  ready  as  if  for  battle :  and  it  was  clear  that 
a  general  crisis  was  at  hand,  that  no  one  would  have  respect 
for  anything,  either  public  or  private  right.  When  the  con- 
suls had  faced  this  violent  storm,  they  soon  found  out  that 
authority  unsupported  by  strength  had  but  little  security ;  the 
lictors  being  maltreated,  and  the  fasces  broken,  they  were 
driven  from  the  forum  into  the  senate-house,  uncertain  how 
far  Volero  would  follow  up  his  victory.  After  that,  the  dis- 
turbance subsiding,  having  ordered  the  members  to  be  sum- 
moned to  the  senate,  they  complained  of  the  insults  offered  to 
themselves,  of  the  violence  of  the  people,  of  the  daring  con- 
duct of  Volero.  After  many  violent  measures  had  been  pro- 
posed, the  older  members  prevailed,  who  did  not  approve  of 
the  rash  behaviour  of  the  commons  being  met  by  the  resent- 
ment of  the  patricians. 

The  commons  having  warmly  espoused  the  cause  of  Vo- 
lero, at  the  next  meeting,  secured  his  election  as  tribune  of 
the  people  for  that  year,  in  which  Lucius  Pinarius  and  Publius 
Furius  were  consuls :  and,  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  all,  who 
thought  that  he  would  make  free  use  of  his  tribuneship  to 
harass  the  consuls  of  the  preceding  year,  postponing  private 


B.  c.  473]  DISTURBANCES  IN  THE   CITY  139 

resentment  to  the  public  interest,  without  the  consuls  being 
attacked  even  by  a  single  word,  he  brought  a  bill  before  the 
people,  that  plebeian  magistrates  should  be  elected  at  the  comi- 
tia  tributa.1  A  measure  of  no  small  importance  was  now  pro- 
posed, under  an  aspect  at  first  sight  by  no  means  alarming; 
but  one  of  such  a  nature  that  it  really  deprived  the  patricians 
of  all  power  of  electing  whatever  tribunes  they  pleased  by  the 
suffrages  of  their  clients.  The  patricians  resisted  to  the  ut- 
most this  proposal,  which  met  with  the  greatest  approval  of 
the  commons :  and  though  none  of  the  college  2  could  be  in- 
duced by  the  influence  either  of  the  consuls  or  of  the  chief 
members  of  the  senate  to  enter  a  protest  against  it,  which  was 
the  only  means  of  effectual  resistance,  yet  the  matter,  a  weighty 
one  from  its  own  importance,  was  spun  out  by  party  struggles 
for  a  whole  year.  The  commons  re-elected  Volero  as  tribune. 
The  senators,  considering  that  the  matter  would  end  in  a  des- 
perate struggle,  elected  as  consul  Appius  Claudius,  the  son  of 
Appius,  who  was  both  hated  by  and  had  hated  the  commons, 
ever  since  the  contests  between  them  and  his  father.  Titus 
Quinctius  was  assigned  to  him  as  his  colleague.  Immediately, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  year,3  no  other  question  took  pre- 
cedence of  that  regarding  the  law.  But  like  Volero,  the  origi- 
nator of  it,  so  his  colleague,  Laetorius,  was  both  a  more  recent, 
as  well  as  a  more  energetic,  supporter  of  it.  His  great  renown 
in  war  made  him  overbearing,  because,  in  the  age  in  which  he 
lived,  no  one  was  more  prompt  in  action.  He,  while  Volero 
confined  himself  to  the  discussion  of  the  law,  avoiding  all  abuse 
of  the  consuls,  broke  out  into  accusations  against  Appius  and 
his  family,  as  having  ever  been  most  overbearing  and  cruel  to- 
ward the  Roman  commons,  contending  that  he  had  been  elected 
by  the  senators,  not  as  consul,  but  as  executioner,  to  harass 
and  torture  the  people :  his  tongue,  unskilled  in  speech,  as  was 
natural  in  a  soldier,  was  unable  to  give  adequate  expression  to 
the  freedom  of  his  sentiments.  When,  therefore,  language 
failed  him,  he  said :  "  Romans,  since  I  do  not  speak  with  as 
much  readiness  as  I  make  good  what  I  have  spoken,  attend 
here  to-morrow.  I  will  either  die  before  your  eyes,  or  will 
carry  the  law."  On  the  following  day  the  tribunes  took  pos- 
session of  the  platform :  the  consuls  and  the  nobles  took  their 
places  together  in  the  assembly  to  obstruct  the  law.  Laeto- 
rius ordered  all  persons  to  be  removed,  except  those  going  to 
vote.  The  young  nobles  kept  their  places,  paying  no  regard 

1  The  assembly  of  the  plebeians  by  tribes. — D.  O. 
*  Of  tribunes.  •  The  consular  year. 


I40  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  471 

to  the  officer;  then  Laetorius  ordered  some  of  them  to  be 
seized.  The  consul  Appius  insisted  that  the  tribune  had  no 
jurisdiction  over  any  one  except  a  plebeian ;  for  that  he  was 
not  a  magistrate  of  the  people  in  general,  but  only  of  the  com- 
mons ;  and  that  even  he  himself  could  not,  according  to  the 
usage  of  their  ancestors,  by  virtue  of  his  authority  remove  any 
person,  because  the  words  were  as  follows:  "  If  ye  think 
proper,  depart,  Quirites."  He  was  easily  able  to  disconcert 
Laetorius  by  discussing  his  right  thus  contemptuously.  The 
tribune,  therefore,  burning  with  rage,  sent  his  officer  to  the 
consul;  the  consul  sent  his  lictor  to  the  tribune,  exclaiming 
that  he  was  a  private  individual,  without  military  office  and 
without  civil  authority :  and  the  tribune  would  have  been 
roughly  handled,  had  not  both  the  entire  assembly  risen  up 
with  great  warmth  in  behalf  of  the  tribune  against  the  consul, 
and  a  crowd  of  people  belonging  to  the  excited  multitude, 
rushed  from  all  parts  of  the  city  into  the  forum.  Appius,  how- 
ever, withstood  this  great  storm  with  obstinacy,  and  the  con- 
test would  have  ended  in  a  battle,  not  without  bloodshed,  had 
not  Quinctius,  the  other  consul,  having  intrusted  the  men  of 
consular  rank  with  the  task  of  removing  his  colleague  from  the 
forum  by  force,  if  they  could  not  do  so  in  any  other  way,  him- 
self now  assuaged  the  raging  people  by  entreaties,  now  im- 
plored the  tribunes  to  dismiss  the  assembly.  Let  them,  said 
he,  give  their  passion  time  to  cool :  delay  would  not  in  any  re- 
spect deprive  them  of  their  power,  but  would  add  prudence 
to  strength;  and  the  senators  would  be  under  the  control  of 
the  people,  and  the  consul  under  that  of  the  senators. 

The  people  were  with  difficulty  pacified  by  Quinctius;  the 
other  consul  with  much  more  difficulty  by  the  patricians.  The 
assembly  of  the  people  having  been  at  length  dismissed,  the 
consuls  convened  the  senate;  in  which,  though  fear  and  re- 
sentment by  turns  had  produced  a  diversity  of  opinions,  the 
more  their  minds  were  called  off,  by  lapse  of  time,  from  pas- 
sion to  reflection,  the  more  adverse  did  they  become  to  con- 
tentiousness, so  that  they  returned  thanks  to  Quinctius,  be- 
cause it  was  owing  to  his  exertions  that  the  disturbance  had 
been  quieted.  Appius  was  requested  to  give  his  consent  that 
the  consular  dignity  should  be  merely  so  great  as  it  could  be 
in  a  state  if  it  was  to  be  united :  it  was  declared  that,  as  long 
as  the  tribunes  and  consuls  claimed  all  power,  each  for  his  own 
side,  no  strength  was  left  between :  that  the  commonwealth 
was  distracted  and  torn  asunder :  that  the  object  aimed  at  was 
rather  to  whom  it  should  belong,  than  that  it  should  be  safe. 
Appius,  on  the  contrary,  called  gods  and  men  to  witness  that 


B.  c.  4?i]     TRIBUNES  ELECTED  IN   THE  COMITIA  141 

the  commonwealth  was  being  betrayed  and  abandoned  through 
cowardice;  that  it  was  not  the  consul  who  had  failed  to  sup- 
port the  senate,  but  the  senate  the  consul:  that  more  oppres- 
sive conditions  were  now  being  submitted  to  than  had  been 
submitted  to  on  the  Sacred  Mount.  Overcome,  however,  by 
the  unanimous  feeling  of  the  senators,  he  desisted :  the  law  was 
carried  without  opposition. 

Then  for  the  first  time  the  tribunes  were  elected  in  the 
comitia  tributa.  Piso  is  the  authority  for  the  statement  that 
three  were  added  to  the  number,  as  if  there  had  been  only  two 
before.  He  also  gives  the  names  of  the  tribunes,  Gnseus 
Siccius,  Lucius  Numitorius,  Marcus  Duellius,  Spurius  Icilius, 
Lucius  Mecilius.  During  the  disturbance  at  Rome,  a  war 
broke  out  with  the  Volscians  and  JEquans,  who  had  laid  waste 
the  country,  so  that,  if  any  secession  of  the  people  took  place, 
they  might  find  a  refuge  with  them.  Afterward,  when  matters 
were  settled,  they  moved  back  their  camp.  Appius  Claudius 
was  sent  against  the  Volscians ;  the  ^Equans  fell  to  Quinctius 
as  his  province.  Appius  exhibited  the  same  severity  in  war 
as  at  home,  only  more  unrestrained,  because  it  was  free  from 
the  control  of  the  tribunes.  He  hated  the  commons  with  a 
hatred  greater  than  that  inherited  from  his  father:  he  had 
been  defeated  by  them:  when  he  had  been  chosen  consul  as 
the  only  man  able  to  oppose  the  influence  of  the  tribunes,  a  law 
had  been  passed,  which  former  consuls  had  obstructed  with 
less  effect,  amid  hopes  of  the  senators  by  no  means  so  great 
as  those  now  placed  in  him.  His  resentment  and  indignation 
at  this  stirred  his  imperious  temper  to  harass  the  army  by  the 
severity  of  his  command;  it  could  not,  however,  be  subdued 
by  any  exercise  of  authority,  with  such  a  spirit  of  opposition 
were  the  soldiers  filled.  They  carried  out  all  orders  slowly,  in- 
dolently, carelessly,  and  stubbornly :  neither  shame  nor  fear 
restrained  them.  If  he  wished  the  march  to  be  accelerated, 
they  designedly  went  more  slowly :  if  he  came  up  to  them  to 
encourage  them  in  their  work,  they  all  relaxed  the  energy 
which  they  had  before  exerted  of  their  own  accord :  they  cast 
down  their  eyes  in  his  presence,  they  silently  cursed  him  as 
he  passed  by;  so  that  that  spirit,  unconquered  by  plebeian 
hatred,  was  sometimes  moved.  Every  kind  of  severity  having 
been  tried  without  effect,  he  no  longer  held  any  intercourse 
with  the  soldiers ;  he  said  the  army  was  corrupted  by  the  cen- 
turions; he  sometimes  gibingly  called  them  tribunes  of  the 
people  and  Voleros. 

None  of  these  circumstances  were  unknown  to  the  Vol- 
scians, and  they  pressed  on  with  so  much  the  more  vigour, 


I42  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  471 

hoping  that  the  Roman  soldiers  would  entertain  the  same 
spirit  of  opposition  against  Appius  as  they  had  formerly  ex- 
hibited against  the  consul  Fabius.  However,  they  showed 
themselves  still  more  embittered  against  Appius  than  against 
Fabius.  For  they  were  not  only  unwilling  to  conquer,  like 
the  army  of  Fabius,  but  even  wished  to  be  conquered.  When 
led  forth  into  the  field,  they  made  for  their  camp  in  ignomini- 
ous flight,  and  did  not  stand  their  ground  until  they  saw  the 
Volscians  advancing  against  their  fortifications,  and  the  dread- 
ful havoc  in  the  rear  of  their  army.  Then  they  were  compelled 
to  put  forth  their  strength  for  battle,  in  order  that  the  now  vic- 
torious enemy  might  be  dislodged  from  their  lines ;  while,  how- 
ever, it  was  sufficiently  clear  that  the  Roman  soldiers  were  only 
unwilling  that  the  camp  should  be  taken,  in  regard  to  all  else 
they  gloried  in  their  own  defeat  and  disgrace.  When  the 
haughty  spirit  of  Appius,  in  no  wise  broken  by  this  behaviour 
of  the  soldiers,  purposed  to  act  with  still  greater  severity,  and 
summoned  a  meeting,  the  lieutenants  and  tribunes  flocked 
around  him,  recommending  him  by  no  means  to  decide  to  put 
his  authority  to  the  proof,  the  entire  strength  of  which  lay  in 
unanimous  obedience,  saying  that  the  soldiers  generally  refused 
to  come  to  the  assembly,  and  that  their  voices  were  heard  on  all 
sides,  demanding  that  the  camp  should  be  removed  from  the 
Volscian  territory :  that  the  victorious  enemy  were  but  a  little 
time  ago  almost  at  the  very  gates  and  rampart,  and  that  not 
merely  a  suspicion  but  the  visible  form  of  a  grievous  disaster 
presented  itself  to  their  eyes.  Yielding  at  last — since  they 
gained  nothing  save  a  respite  from  punishment — having  pro- 
rogued the  assembly,  and  given  orders  that  their  march  should 
be  proclaimed  for  the  following  day,  at  daybreak  he  gave  the 
signal  for  departure  by  sound  of  trumpet.  At  the  very  moment 
when  the  army,  having  got  clear  of  the  camp,  was  forming 
itself,  the  Volscians,  as  if  they  had  been  aroused  by  the  same 
signal,  fell  upon  those  in  the  rear :  from  these  the  alarm  spread- 
ing to  the  van,  threw  both  the  battalions  and  companies  into 
such  a  state  of  consternation,  that  neither  could  the  general's 
orders  be  distinctly  heard,  nor  the  lines  drawn  up.  No  one 
thought  of  anything  but  flight.  In  such  loose  order  did  they 
make  their  way  through  heaps  of  dead  bodies  and  arms,  that 
the  enemy  ceased  their  pursuit  sooner  than  the  Romans  their 
flight.  The  soldiers  having  at  length  rallied  from  their  disor- 
dered flight,  the  consul,  after  he  had  in  vain  followed  his  men, 
bidding  them  return,  pitched  his  camp  in  a  peaceful  part  of  the 
country ;  and  having  convened  an  assembly,  after  inveighing 
not  without  good  reason  against  the  army,  as  traitors  to  mili- 


B.  €.471-469]        TRIAL  OF  APPIUS  CLAUDIUS  143 

tary  discipline,  deserters  of  their  posts,  asking  them,  one  by 
one,  where  were  their  standards,  where  their  arms,  he  first  beat 
with  rods  and  then  beheaded  those  soldiers  who  had  thrown 
down  their  arms,  the  standard-bearers  who  had  lost  their 
standards,  and  also  the  centurions,  and  those  who  received 
double  allowance,1  who  had  deserted  their  ranks.  With  re- 
spect to  the  rest  of  the  rank  and  file,  every  tenth  man  was 
drawn  by  lot  for  punishment. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  consul  and  soldiers  among  the 
JEquans  vied  with  each  other  in  courtesy  and  acts  of  kindness : 
Quinctius  was  naturally  milder  in  disposition,  and  the  ill-fated 
severity  of  his  colleague  had  caused  him  to  give  freer  vent  to 
his  own  good  temper.  This  remarkable  agreement  between 
the  general  and  his  army  the  yEquans  did  not  venture  to  meet, 
but  suffered  the  enemy  to  go  through  their  country  commit- 
ting devastations  in  every  direction.  Nor  were  depredations 
committed  more  extensively  in  that  quarter  in  any  preceding 
war.  The  whole  of  the  booty  was  given  to  the  soldiers.  In 
addition,  they  received  praise,  in  which  the  minds  of  soldiers 
find  no  less  pleasure  than  in  rewards.  The  army  returned 
more  reconciled  both  to  their  general,  and  also,  thanks  to  the 
general,  to  the  patricians,  declaring  that  a  parent  had  been 
given  to  them,  a  tyrant  to  the  other  army  by  the  senate.  The 
year  which  had  passed  with  varied  success  in  war,  and  vio- 
lent dissensions  at  home  and  abroad,  was  rendered  mem- 
orable chiefly  by  the  elections  of  tribes,  a  matter  which 
was  more  important  from  the  victory  in  the  contest 2  that 
was  undertaken  than  from  any  real  advantage ;  for  more  dig- 
nity was  withdrawn  from  the  elections  themselves  by  the 
fact  that  the  patricians  were  excluded  from  the  council, 
than  influence  either  added  to  the  commons  or  taken  from 
the  patricians.8 

A  still  more  stormy  year  followed,  when  Lucius  Valerius 
and  Titus  ^Emilius  were  consuls,  both  by  reason  of  the  strug- 
gles between  the  different  orders  concerning  the  agrarian  law, 
as  well  as  on  account  of  the  trial  of  Appius  Claudius,  for  whom 
Marcus  Duilius  and  Gnaeus  Siccius  appointed  a  day  of  trial, 
as  a  most  active  opposer  of  the  law,  and  one  who  supported 
the  cause  of  the  possessors  of  the  public  land,  as  if  he  were  a 

1  One  of  the  rewards  of  good  conduct  was  double  rations. — D.  O. 

*  That  is,  the  contest  to  obtain  the  reform. — D.  O. 

*  While  the  plebeians  lost  the  dignity  conferred  on  the  assembly  by 
the  presence  of  distinguished  patricians,  they  gained  nothing,  as,  in  the 
mere  matter  of  votes,  they  already  had  a  majority  ;  and  the  patricians 
lost  nothing,  as  the  number  of  their  votes  would  not  be  sufficient  to  ren- 
der them  of  much  importance. 


LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [u.  C.  471-469 

third  consul.1  Never  before  was  an  accused  person  so  hateful 
to  the  commons  brought  to  trial  before  the  people,  over- 
whelmed with  their  resentment  against  himself  and  also 
against  his  father.  The  patricians  too  seldom  made  equal 
exertions  so  readily  on  one's  behalf:  they  declared  that  the 
champion  of  the  senate,  and  the  upholder  of  their  dignity,  set 
up  as  a  barrier  against  all  the  storms  of  the  tribunes  and  com- 
mons, was  exposed  to  the  resentment  of  the  commons,  al- 
though he  had  only  exceeded  the  bounds  of  moderation  in  the 
contest.  Appius  Claudius  himself  was  the  only  one  of  the 
patricians  who  made  light  both  of  the  tribunes  and  commons 
and  his  own  trial.  Neither  the  threats  of  the  commons,  nor 
the  entreaties  of  the  senate,  could  ever  persuade  him  even  to 
change  his  garb,  or  accost  persons  as  a  suppliant,  or  even  to 
soften  or  moderate  his  usual  harshness  of  speech  in  the  least 
degree,  when  his  cause  was  to  be  pleaded  before  the  people. 
The  expression  of  his  countenance  was  the  same;  the  same 
stubbornness  in  his  looks,  the  same  spirit  of  pride  in  his  lan- 
guage :  so  that  a  great  part  of  the  commons  felt  no  less  awe  of 
Appius  when  on  his  trial  than  they  had  felt  for  him  when  con- 
sul. He  pleaded  his  cause  only  once,  and  in  the  same  haughty 
style  of  an  accuser  which  he  had  been  accustomed  to  adopt  on 
all  occasions:  and  he  so  astounded  both  the  tribunes  and  the 
commons  by  his  intrepidity,  that,  of  their  own  accord,  they  post- 
poned the  day  of  trial,  and  then  allowed  the  matter  to  die  out. 
No  long  interval  elapsed :  before,  however,  the  appointed  day 
came,  he  died  of  some  disease ;  and  when  the  tribunes  of  the 
people  endeavoured  to  put  a  stop  to  his  funeral  panegyric,  the 
commons  would  not  allow  the  burial  day  of  so  great  a  man  to 
be  defrauded  of  the  customary  honours :  and  they  listened  to 
his  eulogy  when  dead  as  patiently  as  they  had  listened  to  the 
charges  brought  against  him  when  living,  and  attended  his  ob- 
sequies in  vast  numbers. 

In  the  same  year  the  consul  Valerius,  having  marched 
with  an  army  against  the  ^Equans,  and  being  unable  to  draw 
out  the  enemy  to  an  engagement,  proceeded  to  attack  their 
camp.  A  dreadful  storm  coming  down  from  heaven  accom- 
panied by  thunder  and  hail  prevented  him.  Then,  on  a  signal 
for  a  retreat  being  given,  their  surprise  was  excited  by  the 
return  of  such  fair  weather,  that  they  felt  scruples  about  at- 
tacking a  second  time  a  camp  which  was  defended  as  it  were 
by  some  divine  power :  all  the  violence  of  the  war  was  directed 
to  plundering  the  country.  The  other  consul,  ^Emilius,  con- 

1  There  were  other  specific  charges,  but  Livy  confines  himself  to  the 
Spirit  of  the  prosecution.— D.  O. 


B.  C.  471-469]         WAR   WITH   THE   VOLSCIANS  145 

ducted  the  war  in  Sabine  territory.  There  also,  because  the 
enemy  confined  themselves  within  their  walls,  the  lands  were 
laid  waste.  Then  the  Sabines,  roused  by  the  burning  not  only 
of  the  farms,  but  of  the  villages  also,  which  were  thickly  in- 
habited, after  they  had  fallen  in  with  the  raiders  retired  from 
an  engagement  the  issue  of  which  was  left  undecided,  and  on 
the  following  day  removed  their  camp  into  a  safer  situation. 
This  seemed  a  sufficient  reason  to  the  consul  why  he  should 
leave  the  enemy  as  conquered,  and  depart  thence,  although 
the  war  was  as  yet  unfinished. 

During  these  wars,  while  dissensions  still  continued  at 
home,  Titus  Numicius  Priscus  and  Aulus  Verginius  were 
elected  consuls.  The  commons  appeared  determined  no 
longer  to  brook  the  delay  in  accepting  the  agrarian  law,  and 
extreme  violence  was  on  the  point  of  being  resorted  to,  when 
it  became  known  by  the  smoke  from  the  burning  farms  and  the 
flight  of  the  peasants  that  the  Volscians  were  at  hand:  this 
circumstance  checked  the  sedition  that  was  now  ripe  and  on 
the  point  of  breaking  out.  The  consuls,  under  the  immediate 
compulsion  of  the  senate,  led  forth  the  youth  from  the  city  to 
war,  and  thereby  rendered  the  rest  of  the  commons  more  quiet. 
And  the  enemy  indeed,  having  merely  filled  the  Romans  with 
fear  that  proved  groundless,  departed  in  great  haste.  Nu- 
micius marched  to  Antium  against  the  Volscians,  Verginius 
against  the  ^quans.  There,  after  they  had  nearly  met  with 
a  great  disaster  in  an  attack  from  an  ambuscade,  the  bravery 
of  the  soldiers  restored  their  fortunes,  which  had  been  en- 
dangered through  the  carelessness  of  the  consul.  Affairs 
were  conducted  better  in  the  case  of  the  Volscians.  The  ene- 
my were  routed  in  the  first  engagement,  and  driven  in  flight 
into  the  city  of  Antium,  a  very  wealthy  place,  considering  the 
times :  the  consul,  not  venturing  to  attack  it,  took  from  the 
people  of  Antium  another  town,  Caeno,1  which  was  by  no  means 
so  wealthy.  While  the  ^Equans  and  Volscians  engaged  the 
attention  of  the  Roman  armies,  the  Sabines  advanced  in  their 
depredations  even  to  the  gates  of  the  city:  then  they  them- 
selves, a  few  days  later,  sustained  from  the  two  armies  heavier 
losses  than  they  had  inflicted,  both  the  consuls  having  entered 
their  territories  under  the  influence  of  exasperation. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  to  some  extent  there  was  peace, 
but,  as  frequently  at  other  times,  a  peace  disturbed  by  con- 
tests between  the  patricians  and  commons.  The  exasperated 
commons  refused  to  attend  the  consular  elections :  Titus 
Quinctius  and  Quintus  Servilius  were  elected  consuls  through 

1  The  port  of  Antium,  now  Nettuno. — D.  O, 
10 


I46  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  469-468 

the  influence  of  the  patricians  and  their  dependents :  the  con- 
suls had  a  year  similar  to  the  preceding,  disturbed  at  the  be- 
ginning, and  afterward  tranquil  by  reason  of  war  abroad. 
The  Sabines  crossing  the  plains  of  Crustumerium  by  forced 
marches,  after  carrying  fire  and  sword  along  the  banks  of  the 
Anio,  being  repulsed  when  they  had  nearly  come  up  to  the 
Colline  gate  and  the  walls,  drove  off,  however,  great  booty  of 
men  and  cattle:  the  consul  Servilius,  having  pursued  them 
with  an  army  bent  on  attacking  them,  was  unable  to  overtake 
the  main  body  itself  in  the  level  country:  he,  however,  ex- 
tended his  devastations  over  such  a  wide  area,  that  he  left 
nothing  unmolested  by  war,  and  returned  after  having  ob- 
tained booty  many  times  greater  than  that  carried  off  by  the 
enemy.  The  public  cause  was  also  extremely  well  supported 
among  the  Volscians  by  the  exertions  both  of  the  general  and 
the  soldiers.  First  a  pitched  battle  was  fought,  on  level 
ground,  with  great  slaughter  and  much  bloodshed  on  both 
sides:  and  the  Romans,  because  their  small  numbers  caused 
their  loss  to  be  more  keenly  felt,  would  have  given  way,  had  not 
the  consul,  by  a  well-timed  fiction,  reanimated  the  army,  by 
crying  out  that  the  enemy  was  in  flight  on  the  other  wing;  hav- 
ing charged,  they,  by  believing  themselves  victorious,  became 
so.  The  consul,  fearing  lest,  by  pressing  on  too  far,  he  might 
renew  the  contest,  gave  the  signal  for  retreat.  A  few  days  in- 
tervened, both  sides  resting  as  if  by  tacit  suspension  of  hos- 
tilities :  during  these  days  a  vast  number  of  persons  from  all 
the  states  of  the  Volscians  and  ^quans  came  to  the  camp,  feel- 
ing no  doubt  that  the  Romans  would  depart  during  the  night, 
if  they  perceived  them.  Accordingly,  about  the  third  watch,1 
they  came  to  attack  the  camp.  Quinctius  having  allayed  the 
confusion  which  the  sudden  panic  had  occasioned,  and  ordered 
the  soldiers  to  remain  quiet  in  their  tents,  led  out  a  cohort  of 
the  Hernicans  for  an  advance  guard :  the  trumpeters  and  horn- 
blowers  he  mounted  on  horseback,  and  commanded  them  to 
sound  their  trumpets  before  the  rampart,  and  to  keep  the  ene- 
my in  suspense  till  daylight :  during  the  rest  of  the  night  every- 
thing was  so  quiet  in  the  camp,  that  the  Romans  had  even  the 
opportunity  of  sleeping.2  The  sight  of  the  armed  infantry, 
whom  they  both  considered  to  be  more  numerous  than  they 
were,  and  at  the  same  time  Romans,  the  bustle  and  neighing  of 
the  horses,  which  became  restless,  both  from  the  fact  of  strange 
riders  being  mounted  on  them,  and  moreover  from  the  sound 

1  Midnight. — D.  O. 

*  The  rendering  of  the  rest  of  this  section  is  vague  and  unsatisfac- 
tory.— D.  O. 


B.  €.468]  DEFEAT  OF  THE  VOLSCIANS  147 

of  the  trumpets  frightening  them,  kept  the  Volscians  intently 
awaiting  an  attack  of  the  enemy. 

When  the  day  dawned,  the  Romans,  invigorated  and  hav- 
ing enjoyed  a  full  sleep,  on  being  marched  out  to  battle,  at  the 
first  onset  caused  the  Volscians  to  give  way,  wearied  as  they 
were  from  standing  and  keeping  watch:  though  indeed  the 
enemy  rather  retired  than  were  routed,  because  in  the  rear 
there  were  hills  to  which  the  unbroken  ranks  behind  the  first 
line  had  a  safe  retreat.  The  consul,  when  he  came  to  the  un- 
even ground,  halted  his  army;  the  infantry  were  kept  back 
with  difficulty :  they  loudly  demanded  to  be  allowed  to  pursue 
the  discomfited  foe.  The  cavalry  were  more  violent :  crowd- 
ing round  the  general,  they  cried  out  that  they  would  proceed 
in  front  of  the  first  line.  While  the  consul  hesitated,  relying 
on  the  valour  of  his  men,  yet  having  little  confidence  in  the 
nature  of  the  ground,  they  all  cried  out  that  they  would  pro- 
ceed; and  execution  followed  the  shout.  Fixing  their  spears 
in  the  ground,  in  order  that  they  might  be  lighter  to  mount 
the  heights,  they  advanced  uphill  at  a  run.  The  Volscians, 
having  discharged  their  missile  weapons  at  the  first  onset, 
hurled  down  the  stones  that  lay  at  their  feet  upon  the  Romans 
as  they  were  making  their  way  up,  and  having  thrown  them 
into  confusion  by  incessant  blows,  strove  to  drive  them  from 
the  higher  ground:  thus  the  left  wing  of  the  Romans  was 
nearly  overborne,  had  not  the  consul  dispelled  their  fear  by 
rousing  them  to  a  sense  of  shame  as  they  were  on  the  point 
of  retreating,  chiding  at  the  same  time  their  temerity  and  their 
cowardice.  At  first  they  stood  their  ground  with  determined 
firmness;  then,  as  they  recovered  their  strength  by  still  hold- 
ing their  position,  they  ventured  to  advance  of  themselves,  and, 
renewing  their  shouts,  they  encouraged  the  whole  body  to 
advance:  then  having  made  a  fresh  attack,  they  forced  their 
way  up  and  surmounted  the  unfavourable  ground.  They  were 
now  on  the  point  of  gaining  the  summit  of  the  hill,  when  the 
enemy  turned  their  backs,  and  pursued  and  pursuer  at  full 
speed  rushed  into  the  camp  almost  in  one  body.  During  this 
panic  the  camp  was  taken ;  such  of  the  Volscians  as  were  able 
to  make  good  their  escape,  made  for  Antium.  The  Roman 
army  also  was  led  thither;  after  having  been  invested  for  a  few 
days,  the  town  surrendered,  not  in  consequence  of  any  new 
efforts  on  the  part  of  the  besiegers,  but  because  the  spirits  of 
the  inhabitants  had  sunk  ever  since  the  unsuccessful  battle  and 
the  loss  of  their  camp. 


BOOK  III 

THE   DECEMVIRATE 

ATTER  the  capture  of  Antium,  Titus  ^Emilius  and  Quin- 
tus  Fabius  became  consuls.  This  was  the  Fabius  who 
was  the  sole  survivor  of  the  family  that  had  been  an- 
nihilated at  the  Cremera.  ^Emilius  had  already  in  his 
former  consulship  recommended  the  bestowal  of  land  on  the 
people.  Accordingly,  in  his  second  consulship  also,  both  the 
advocates  of  the  agrarian  law  encouraged  themselves  to  hope 
for  the  passing  of  the  measure,  and  the  tribunes  took  it  up, 
thinking  that  a  result,  that  had  been  frequently  attempted  in 
opposition  to  the  consuls,  might  be  obtained  now  that  at  any 
rate  one  consul  supported  it:  the  consul  remained  firm  in 
his  opinion.  The  possessors  of  state  land  * — and  these  a  con- 
siderable part  of  the  patricians — transferred  the  odium  of  the 
entire  affair  from  the  tribunes  to  the  consul,  complaining  that 
a  man,  who  held  the  first  office  in  the  state,  was  busying  him- 
self with  proposals  more  befitting  the  tribunes,  and  was  gain- 
ing popularity  by  making  presents  out  of  other  people's  prop- 
erty. A  violent  contest  was  at  hand,  had  not  Fabius  com- 
promised the  matter  by  a  suggestion  disagreeable  to  neither 
party.  That  under  the  conduct  and  auspices  of  Titus  Quinc- 
tius  a  considerable  tract  of  land  had  been  taken  in  the  pre- 
ceding year  from  the  Volscians:  that  a  colony  might  be  sent 
to  Antium,  a  neighbouring  and  conveniently  situated  mari- 
time city:  in  this  manner  the  commons  would  come  in  for 
lands  without  any  complaints  on  the  part  of  the  present  occu- 

1  The  ager  publicus  or  public  land  consisted  of  the  landed  estates 
which  had  belonged  to  the  kings,  and  were  increased  by  land  taken  from 
enemies  who  had  been  captured  in  war.  The  patricians  had  gained  ex- 
clusive occupation  of  this,  for  which  they  paid  a  nominal  rent  in  the 
shape  of  produce  and  tithes  :  the  state,  however,  still  retained  the  right 
of  disposal  of  it.  By  degrees  the  ager  publicus  fell  into  the  hands  of  a 
few  rich  individuals,  who  were  continually  buying  up  smaller  estates, 
which  were  cultivated  by  slaves,  thus  reducing  the  number  of  free  agri- 
cultural labourers. 

148 


B.  C.  465]  WAR   WITH   THE 

piers,  and  the  state  remain  at  peace.  This  proposition  was 
accepted.  He  secured  the  appointment  of  Titus  Quinctius, 
Aulus  Verginius,  and  Publius  Furius  as  triumvirs  for  dis- 
tributing the  land:  such  as  wished  to  receive  land  were  or- 
dered to  give  in  their  names.  The  attainment  of  their  object 
created  disgust  immediately,  as  usually  happens,  and  so  few 
gave  in  their  names  that  Volscian  colonists  were  added  to 
fill  up  the  number:  the  rest  of  the  people  preferred  to  ask  for 
land  in  Rome,  rather  than  to  receive  it  elsewhere.  The 
^Equans  sued  for  peace  from  Quintus  Fabius  (he  had  gone 
thither  with  an  army),  and  they  themselves  broke  it  by  a 
sudden  incursion  into  Latin  territory. 

In  the  following  year  Quintus  Servilius  (for  he  was  consul 
with  Spurius  Postumius),  being  sent  against  the  yEquans, 
pitched  his  camp  permanently  in  Latin  territory:  unavoidable 
inaction  held  the  army  in  check,  since  it  was  attacked  by 
illness.  The  war  was  protracted  to  the  third  year,  when 
Quintus  Fabius  and  Titus  Quinctius  were  consuls.  To  Fa- 
bius, because  he,  as  conqueror,  had  granted  peace  to  the 
^Equans,  that  sphere  of  action  was  assigned  in  an  unusual 
manner.1  He,  setting  out  with  a  sure  hope  that  his  name  and 
renown  would  reduce  the  yEquans  to  submission,  sent  ambas- 
sadors to  the  council  of  the  nation,  and  ordered  them  to  an- 
nounce that  Quintus  Fabius,  the  consul,  stated  that  he  had 
brought  peace  to  Rome  from  the  ^Equans,  that  from  Rome 
he  now  brought  them  war,  with  that  same  right  hand,  but 
now  armed,  which  he  had  formerly  given  to  them  in  amity; 
that  the  gods  were  now  witnesses,  and  would  presently  take 
vengeance  on  those  by  whose  perfidy  and  perjury  that  had 
come  to  pass.  That  he,  however,  be  matters  as  they  might, 
even  now  preferred  that  the  ^quans  should  repent  of  their 
own  accord  rather  than  suffer  the  vengeance  of  an  enemy. 
If  they  repented,  they  would  have  a  safe  retreat  in  the  clem- 
ency they  had  already  experienced;  but  if  they  still  took 
pleasure  in  perjury,  they  would  wage  war  with  the  gods  en- 
raged against  them  rather  than  their  enemies.  These  words 
had  so  little  effect  on  any  of  them  that  the  ambassadors  were 
near  being  ill-treated,  and  an  army  was  sent  to  Algidum  2 
against  the  Romans.  When  news  of  this  was  brought  to 
Rome,  the  indignity  of  the  affair,  rather  than  the  danger, 
caused  the  other  consul  to  be  summoned  from  the  city;  thus 
two  consular  armies  advanced  against  the  enemy  in  order  of 

1  Directly,  rather  than  by  lot  as  was  usual. 

1  Monte  Algido,  the  highest  point  of  the  Alban  Mountains,  not  far 
from  Ontanese. — D.  O. 


I5o  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [8.0.465 

battle,  intending  to  come  to  an  engagement  at  once.  But  as 
it  happened  that  not  much  of  the  day  remained,  one  of  the 
advance  guard  of  the  enemy  cried  out :  "  This  is  making  a 
show  of  war,  Romans,  not  waging  it :  you  draw  up  your  army 
in  line  of  battle,  when  night  is  at  hand;  we  need  a  longer 
period  of  daylight  for  the  contest  which  is  to  come.  To- 
morrow at  sunrise  return  to  the  field:  you  shall  have  an  op- 
portunity of  fighting,  never  fear."  The  soldiers,  stung  by 
these  taunts,  were  marched  back  into  camp  till  the  following 
day,  thinking  that  a  long  night  was  approaching,  which 
would  cause  the  contest  to  be  delayed.  Then  indeed  they  re- 
freshed their  bodies  with  food  and  sleep:  on  the  following 
day,  when  it  was  light,  the  Roman  army  took  up  their  posi- 
tion some  considerable  time  before.  At  length  the  JEquans 
also  advanced.  The  battle  was  hotly  contested  on  both  sides, 
because  the  Romans  fought  under  the  influence  of  resentment 
and  hatred,  while  the  JEquans  were  compelled  by  a  conscious- 
ness of  danger  incurred  by  misconduct,  and  despair  of  any 
confidence  being  reposed  in  them  hereafter,  to  venture  and 
to  have  recourse  to  the  most  desperate  efforts.  The  ^Equans, 
however,  did  not  withstand  the  attack  of  the  Roman  troops, 
and  when,  having  been  defeated,  they  had  retired  to  their  own 
territories,  the  savage  multitude,  with  feelings  not  at  all  more 
disposed  to  peace,  began  to  rebuke  their  leaders:  that  their 
fortunes  had  been  intrusted  to  the  hazard  of  a  pitched  battle, 
in  which  mode  of  fighting  the  Romans  were  superior.  That 
the  JEquans  were  better  adapted  for  depredations  and  incur- 
sions, and  that  several  parties,  acting  in  different  directions, 
conducted  wars  with  greater  success  than  the  unwieldy  mass 
of  a  single  army. 

Accordingly,  having  left  a  guard  over  the  camp,  they 
marched  out  and  attacked  the  Roman  frontiers  with  such 
fury  that  they  carried  terror  even  to  the  city:  the  fact  that 
this  was  unexpected  also  caused  more  alarm,  because  it  was 
least  of  all  to  be  feared  that  an  enemy,  vanquished  and  al- 
most besieged  in  their  camp,  should  entertain  thoughts  of 
depredation:  and  the  peasants,  rushing  through  the  gates  in 
a  state  of  panic,  cried  out  that  it  was  not  a  mere  raid,  nor 
small  parties  of  plunderers,  but,  exaggerating  everything  in 
their  groundless  fear,  whole  armies  and  legions  of  the  enemy 
that  were  close  at  hand,  and  that  they  were  hastening  toward 
the  city  in  hostile  array.  Those  who  were  nearest  carried  to 
others  the  reports  heard  from  these,  reports  vague  and  on 
that  account  more  groundless:  and  the  hurry  and  clamour 
of  those  calling  to  arms  bore  no  distant  resemblance  to  the 


B.C.  464]  WAR  WITH  THE  ^QUANS  151 

panic  that  arises  when  a  city  has  been  taken  by  storm.  It 
so  happened  that  the  consul  Quinctius  had  returned  to  Rome 
from  Algidum:  this  brought  some  relief  to  their  terror;  and, 
the  tumult  being  calmed,  after  chiding  them  for  their  dread 
of  a  vanquished  enemy,  he  set  a  guard  on  the  gates.  Then 
a  meeting  of  the  senate  was  summoned,  and  a  suspension  of 
business  proclaimed  by  their  authority:  he  himself,  having 
set  out  to  defend  the  frontiers,  leaving  behind  Quintus  Ser- 
vilius  as  prefect  of  the  city,  found  no  enemy  in  the  country. 
Affairs  were  conducted  with  distinguished  success  by  the 
other  consul;  who,  having  attacked  the  enemy,  where  he 
knew  that  they  would  arrive,  laden  with  booty,  and  therefore 
marching  with  their  army  the  more  encumbered,  caused  their 
depredation  to  prove  their  destruction.  Few  of  the  enemy 
escaped  from  the  ambuscade;  all  the  booty  was  recovered. 
Thus  the  return  of  the  consul  Quinctius  to  the  city  put  an 
end  to  the  suspension  of  business,  which  lasted  four  days.  A 
census  *  was  then  held,  and  the  lustrum  2  closed  by  Quinctius : 
the  number  of  citizens  rated  is  said  to  have  been  one  hundred 
and  four  thousand  seven  hundred  and  fourteen,  not  counting 
orphans  of  both  sexes.  Nothing  memorable  occurred  after- 
ward among  the  ^Equans ;  they  retired  into  their  towns,  allow- 
ing their  possessions  to  be  consumed  by  fire  and  devastated. 
The  consul,  after  he  had  repeatedly  carried  devastation  with  a 
hostile  army  through  the  whole  of  the  enemy's  country,  re- 
turned to  Rome  with  great  glory  and  booty. 

The  next  consuls  were  Aulus  Postumius  Albus  and  Spu- 
rius  Furius  Fusus.  Furii  is  by  some  writers  written  Fusii; 
this  I  mention,  to  prevent  any  one  thinking  that  the  change, 
which  is  only  in  the  names,  is  in  the  persons  themselves. 
There  was  no  doubt  that  one  of  the  consuls  was  about  to 
begin  hostilities  against  the  ^Equans.  The  latter  accord- 
ingly sought  help  from  the  Volscians  of  Ecetra;  this  was 
readily  granted  (so  keenly  did  these  states  contend  in  in- 
veterate hatred  against  the  Romans),  and  preparations  for 
war  were  made  with  the  utmost  vigour.  The  Hernicans  came 
to  hear  of  it,  and  warned  the  Romans  that  the  Ecetrans  had 
revolted  to  the  JEquans:  the  colony  of  Antium  also  was  sus- 
pected, because,  after  the  town  had  been  taken  a  great  num- 
ber of  the  inhabitants  had  fled  thence  for  refuge  to  the 
./Equans:  and  these  soldiers  behaved  with  the  very  greatest 
bravery  during  the  course  of  the  war.  After  the  ^quans  had 

1  In  later  times  the  censor  performed  this  office. — D.  O. 
'  The  ceremony  of  purification  took  place  every  five  years,  hence  "  lus- 
trum "  came  to  be  used  for  a  period  of  five  years. 


!£2  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  464 

been  driven  into  the  towns,  when  this  rabble  returned  to  An- 
tium,  it  alienated  from  the  Romans  the  colonists  who  were  al- 
ready of  their  own  accord  disposed  to  treachery.  The  matter 
not  yet  being  ripe,  when  it  had  been  announced  to  the  senate 
that  a  revolt  was  intended,  the  consuls  were  charged  to  inquire 
what  was  going  on,  the  leading  men  of  the  colony  being  sum- 
moned to  Rome.  When  they  had  attended  without  reluctance, 
they  were  conducted  before  the  senate  by  the  consuls,  and 
gave  such  answers  to  the  questions  that  were  put  to  them  that 
they  were  dismissed  more  suspected  than  they  had  come. 

After  this  war  was  regarded  as  inevitable.  Spurius  Furius, 
one  of  the  consuls  to  whom  that  sphere  of  action  had  fallen, 
having  marched  against  the  ^Equans,  found  the  enemy  com- 
mitting depredations  in  the  country  of  the  Hernicans;  and 
being  ignorant  of  their  numbers,  because  they  had  nowhere 
been  seen  all  together,  he  rashly  hazarded  an  engagement 
with  an  army  which  was  no  match  for  their  forces.  Being 
driven  from  his  position  at  the  first  onset,  he  retreated  to  his 
camp:  nor  was  that  the  end  of  his  danger:  for  both  on  the 
next  night  and  the  following  day,  his  camp  was  beset  and 
assaulted  with  such  vigour  that  not  even  a  messenger  could 
be  despatched  thence  to  Rome.  The  Hernicans  brought  news 
both  that  an  unsuccessful  battle  had  been  fought,  and  that 
the  consul  and  army  were  besieged:  and  inspired  the  senate 
with  such  terror,  that  the  other  consul  Postumius  was  charged 
to  see  to  it  that  the  commonwealth  took  no  harm,1  a  form 
of  decree  which  has  ever  been  deemed  to  be  one  of  extreme 
urgency.  It  seemed  most  advisable  that  the  consul  himself 
should  remain  at  Rome  to  enlist  all  such  as  were  able  to  bear 
arms :  that  Titus  Quinctius  should  be  sent  as  proconsul  2  to 
the  relief  of  the  camp  with  the  army  of  the  allies :  to  complete 
this  army  the  Latins  and  Hernicans,  and  the  colony  of  Antium 
were  ordered  to  supply  Quinctius  with  troops  hurriedly  raised 
— such  was  the  name  (subitarii)  that  they  gave  to  auxiliaries 
raised  for  sudden  emergencies. 

During  those  days  many  manoeuvres  and  many  attacks 
were  carried  out  on  both  sides,  because  the  enemy,  having 
the  advantage  in  numbers,  attempted  to  harass  the  Roman 
forces  by  attacking  them  on  many  sides,  as  not  likely  to 
prove  sufficient  to  meet  all  attacks.  While  the  camp  was 
being  besieged,  at  the  same  time  part  of  the  army  was  sent 
to  devastate  Roman  territory,  and  to  make  an  attempt  upon 

1  This  decree  was  practically  a  bestowal  of  absolute  power. — D.  O. 
*  In  later  times  the  proconsul  was  the  consul  of  the  previous  year,  ap- 
pointed to  act  as  such  over  one  of  the  provinces. — D.  O. 


B.C.  464]  DEFEAT  OF  THE  ^QUANS  153 

the  city  itself,  should  fortune  favour.  Lucius  Valerius  was 
left  to  guard  the  city:  the  consul  Postumius  was  sent  to  pre- 
vent the  plundering  of  the  frontiers.  There  was  no  abatement 
in  any  quarter  either  of  vigilance  or  activity;  watches  were 
stationed  in  the  city,  outposts  before  the  gates,  and  guards 
along  the  walls:  and  a  cessation  of  business  was  observed  for 
several  days,  as  was  necessary  amid  such  general  confusion. 
In  the  meantime  the  consul  Furius,  after  he  had  at  first  pas- 
sively endured  the  siege  in  his  camp,  sallied  forth  through 
the  main  gate  1  against  the  enemy  when  off  their  guard ;  and 
though  he  might  have  pursued  them,  he  stopped  through 
apprehension,  that  an  attack  might  be  made  on  the  camp 
from  the  other  side.  The  lieutenant  Furius  (he  was  also  the 
consul's  brother)  was  carried  away  too  far  in  pursuit:  nor 
did  he,  in  his  eagerness  to  follow  them  up,  observe  either 
his  own  party  returning,  or  the  attack  of  the  enemy  on  his 
rear:  being  thus  shut  out,  having  repeatedly  made  many  un- 
availing efforts  to  force  his  way  to  the  camp,  he  fell,  fighting 
bravely.  In  like  manner  the  consul,  turning  about  to  renew 
the  fight,  on  being  informed  that  his  brother  was  surrounded, 
rushing  into  the  thick  of  the  fight  rashly  rather  than  with 
sufficient  caution,  was  wounded,  and  with  difficulty  rescued 
by  those  around  him.  This  both  damped  the  courage  of  his 
own  men,  and  increased  the  boldness  of  the  enemy;  who, 
being  encouraged  by  the  death  of  the  lieutenant,  and  by  the 
consul's  wound,  could  not  afterward  have  been  withstood  by 
any  force,  as  the  Romans,  having  been  driven  into  their  camp, 
were  again  being  besieged,  being  a  match  for  them  neither 
in  hopes  nor  in  strength,  and  the  very  existence  of  the  state 
would  have  been  imperilled,  had  not  Titus  Quinctius  come 
to  their  relief  with  foreign  troops,  the  Latin  and  Hernican 
army.  He  attacked  the  ^quans  on  their  rear  while  their 
attention  was  fixed  on  the  Roman  camp,  and  while  they  were 
insultingly  displaying  the  head  of  the  lieutenant:  and,  a  sally 
being  made  at  the  same  time  from  the  camp  at  a  signal  given  by 
himself  from  a  distance,  he  surrounded  a  large  force  of  the 
enemy.  Of  the  ^Equans  in  Roman  territory  the  slaughter  was 
less,  their  flight  more  disorderly.  As  they  straggled  in  different 
directions,  driving  their  plunder  before  them,  Postumius  at- 
tacked them  in  several  places,  where  he  had  posted  bodies  of 
troops  in  advantageous  positions.  They,  while  straying  about 

1  This  gate  was  on  the  west  side,  in  the  rear,  farthest  from  the  enemy  : 
it  was  so  called  from  the  decumanus,  a  line  drawn  from  east  to  west, 
which  divided  the  camp  into  two  halves :  see  note  in  revised  edition  of 
Prendeville's  Livy. 


LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [6.0.464-463 

and  pursuing  their  flight  in  great  disorder,  fell  in  with  the 
victorious  Quinctius  as  he  was  returning  with  the  wounded 
consul.  Then  the  consular  army  by  its  distinguished  bravery 
amply  avenged  the  consul's  wound,  and  the  death  of  the  lieu- 
tenant and  the  slaughter  of  the  cohorts;  heavy  losses  were 
both  inflicted  and  received  on  both  sides  during  those  days. 
In  a  matter  of  such  antiquity  it  is  difficult  to  state,  so  as  to 
inspire  conviction,  the  exact  number  of  those  who  fought  or 
fell:  Antias  Valerius,  however,  ventures  to  give  an  estimate 
of  the  numbers:  that  in  the  Hernican  territory  there  fell  five 
thousand  eight  hundred  Romans;  that  of  the  predatory  par- 
ties of  the  yEquans,  who  strayed  through  the  Roman  frontiers 
for  the  purpose  of  plundering,  two  thousand  four  hundred 
were  slain  by  the  consul  Aulus  Ppstumius;  that  the  rest  of 
the  body  which  fell  in  with  Quinctius  while  driving  its  booty 
before  them,  by  no  means  got  off  with  a  loss  equally  small: 
of  these  he  asserts  that  four  thousand,  and  by  way  of  stating 
the  number  exactly,  two  hundred  and  thirty  were  slain.  After 
their  return  to  Rome,  the  cessation  of  business  was  aban- 
doned. The  sky  seemed  to  be  all  ablaze  with  fire;  and  other 
prodigies  either  actually  presented  themselves  before  men's 
eyes,  or  exhibited  imaginary  appearances  to  their  affrighted 
minds.  To  avert  these  terrors,  a  solemn  festival  for  three 
days  was  proclaimed,  during  which  all  the  shrines  were  filled 
with  a  crowd  of  men  and  women,  earnestly  imploring  the 
favour  of  the  gods.  After  this  the  Latin  and  Hernican  co- 
horts were  sent  back  to  their  respective  homes,  after  they 
had  been  thanked  by  the  senate  for  their  spirited  conduct  in 
war.  The  thousand  soldiers  from  Antium  were  dismissed 
almost  with  disgrace,  because  they  had  come  after  the  battle 
too  late  to  render  assistance. 

The  elections  were  then  held:  Lucius  ^Ibutius  and  Pub- 
lius  Servilius  were  elected  consuls,  and  entered  on  their  office 
on  the  calends  of  August,1  according  to  the  practice  of  be- 
ginning the  year  on  that  date.  It  was  an  unhealthy  season, 
and  it  so  happened  that  the  year 2  was  pestilential  to  the  city 
and  country,  and  not  more  to  men  than  to  cattle;  and  they 
themselves  increased  the  severity  of  the  disease  by  admitting 
the  cattle  and  the  peasants  into  the  city  in  consequence  of  their 
dread  of  devastation.  This  collection  of  animals  of  every  kind 

1  August  ist. 

*  The  consular  year,  not  the  civil  one,  which  began  in  January :  the 
time  at  which  the  consuls  entered  upon  office  varied  very  much  until  B.  c. 
153,  when  it  was  finally  settled  that  the  date  of  their  doing  so  should  be 
January  ist. 


8.0.463-462]  PESTILENCE   AT  ROME  155 

mingled  together  both  distressed  the  inhabitants  of  the  city 
by  the  unusual  stench,  and  also  the  peasants,  crowded  to- 
gether into  their  confined  dwellings,  by  heat  and  want  of 
sleep,  while  their  attendance  on  each  other,  and  actual  con- 
tact helped  to  spread  disease.  While  they  were  hardly  able 
to  endure  the  calamities  that  pressed  upon  them,  ambassadors 
from  the  Hernicans  suddenly  brought  word  that  the  ^quans 
and  Volscians  had  united  their  forces,  and  pitched  their  camp 
in  their  territory:  that  from  thence  they  were  devastating 
their  frontiers  with  an  immense  army.  In  addition  to  the 
fact  that  the  small  attendance  of  the  senate  was  a  proof  to  the 
allies  that  the  state  was  prostrated  by  the  pestilence,  they  fur- 
ther received  this  melancholy  answer:  That  the  Hernicans,  as 
well  as  the  Latins,  must  now  defend  their  possessions  by  their 
own  unaided  exertions.  That  the  city  of  Rome,  through  the 
sudden  anger  of  the  gods,  was  ravaged  by  disease.  If  any 
relief  from  that  calamity  should  arise,  that  they  would  afford 
aid  to  their  allies,  as  they  had  done  the  year  before,  and  always 
on  other  occasions.  The  allies  departed,  carrying  home,  in- 
stead of  the  melancholy  news  they  had  brought,  news  still 
more  melancholy,  seeing  that  they  were  now  obliged  to  sus- 
tain by  their  own  resources  a  war,  which  they  would  have 
with  difficulty  sustained  even  if  backed  by  the  power  of  Rome. 
The  enemy  no  longer  confined  themselves  to  the  Hernican 
territory.  They  proceeded  thence  with  determined  hostility 
into  the  Roman  territories,  which  were  already  devastated 
without  the  injuries  of  war.  There,  without  any  one  meeting 
them,  not  even  an  unarmed  person,  they  passed  through  en- 
tire tracts  destitute  not  only  of  troops,  but  even  uncultivated, 
and  reached  the  third  milestone  on  the  Gabinian  road.1  JEbu- 
tius,  the  Roman  consul,  was  dead:  his  colleague,  Servilius, 
was  dragging  out  his  life  with  slender  hope  of  recovery;  most 
of  the  leading  men,  the  chief  part  of  the  patricians,  nearly  all 
those  of  military  age,  were  stricken  down  with  disease,  so  that 
they  not  only  had  not  sufficient  strength  for  the  expeditions, 
which  amid  such  an  alarm  the  state  of  affairs  required,  but 
scarcely  even  for  quietly  mounting  guard.  Those  senators, 
whose  age  and  health  permitted  them,  personally  discharged 
the  duty  of  sentinels.  The  patrol  and  general  supervision  was 
assigned  to  the  plebeian  aediles:  on  them  devolved  the  chief 
conduct  of  affairs  and  the  majesty  of  the  consular  authority. 
The  commonwealth  thus  desolate,  since  it  was  without 
a  head,  and  without  strength,  was  saved  by  the  guardian  gods 
and  good  fortune  of  the  city,  which  inspired  the  Volscians 

1  Called  "  Via  Praenestina  "  beyond  Gabii. 


LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.462 

and  ^Equans  with  the  disposition  of  freebooters  rather  than 
of  enemies;  for  so  far  were  their  minds  from  entertaining 
any  hope  not  only  of  taking  but  even  of  approaching  the  walls 
of  Rome,  and  so  thoroughly  did  the  sight  of  the  houses  in  the 
distance,  and  the  adjacent  hills,  divert  their  thoughts,  that, 
on  a  murmur  arising  throughout  the  entire  camp — why  should 
they  waste  time  in  indolence  without  booty  in  a  wild  and 
desert  land,  amid  the  pestilence  engendered  by  cattle  and 
human  beings,  when  they  could  repair  to  places  as  yet  unat- 
tacked — the  Tusculan  territory  abounding  in  wealth?  They 
suddenly  pulled  up  their  standards,1  and,  by  cross-country 
marches,  passed  through  the  Lavican  territory  to  the  Tusculan 
hills :  to  that  quarter  the  whole  violence  and  storm  of  the  war 
was  directed.  In  the  meantime  the  Hernicans  and  Latins,  in- 
fluenced not  only  by  compassion  but  by  a  feeling  of  shame, 
if  they  neither  opposed  the  common  enemy  who  were  mak- 
ing for  the  city  of  Rome  with  a  hostile  army,  nor  afforded 
any  aid  to  their  allies  when  besieged,  marched  to  Rome  with 
united  forces.  Not  finding  the  enemy  there,  they  followed 
their  tracks  in  the  direction  they  were  reported  to  have  taken, 
and  met  them  as  they  were  coming  down  from  Tusculan  ter- 
ritory into  the  Alban  valley:  there  a  battle  was  fought  under 
circumstances  by  no  means  equal;  and  their  fidelity  proved 
by  no  means  favourable  to  the  allies  for  the  time  being.  The 
havoc  caused  by  pestilence  at  Rome  was  not  less  than  that 
caused  by  the  sword  among  the  allies:  the  only  surviving 
consul  died,  as  well  as  other  distinguished  men,  Marcus  Va- 
lerius, Titus  Verginius  Rutilus,  augurs:  Servius  Sulpicius, 
chief  priest  of  the  curies : 2  while  among  undistinguished  per- 
sons the  virulence  of  the  disease  spread  extensively:  and  the 
senate,  destitute  of  human  aid,  directed  the  people's  atten- 
tion to  the  gods  and  to  vows:  they  were  ordered  to  go  and 
offer  supplications  with  their  wives  and  children,  and  to  en- 
treat the  favour  of  Heaven.  Besides  the  fact  that  their  own 
sufferings  obliged  each  to  do  so,  when  summoned  by  public 
authority,  they  filled  all  the  shrines;  the  prostrate  matrons  in 
every  quarter  sweeping  the  temples  with  their  hair,  begged  for 
a  remission  of  the  divine  displeasure,  and  a  termination  to  the 
pestilence. 

From  this  time,  whether  it  was  that  the  favour  of  the  gods 
was  obtained,  or  that  the  more  unhealthful  season  of  the  year 

1  That  is,  broke  up  camp. — D.  O. 

*  The  people  of  Rome  had  been  divided  in  early  times  into  thirty 
curies  :  each  of  these  had  an  officiating  priest,  called  curio,  and  the  whole 
body  was  under  the  presidency  of  the  curio  maximus. 


B.C.  462]  ABATEMENT   OF   THE   PLAGUE  157 

was  now  over,  the  bodily  condition  of  the  people,  now  rid 
of  disease,  gradually  began  to  be  more  healthy,  and  their 
attention  being  now  directed  to  public  concerns,  after  the 
expiration  of  several  interregna,  Publius  Valerius  Publicola, 
on  the  third  day  after  he  had  entered  on  his  office  of  interrex,1 
procured  the  election  of  Lucius  Lucretius  Tricipitinus,  and 
Titus  Veturius  (or  Vetusius)  Geminus,  to  the  consulship. 
They  entered  on  their  consulship  on  the  third  day  before  the 
ides  of  August,2  the  state  being  now  strong  enough  not  only 
to  repel  a  hostile  attack,  but  even  to  act  itself  on  the  offensive. 
Therefore  when  the  Hernicans  announced  that  the  enemy  had 
crossed  over  into  their  boundaries,  assistance  was  readily 
promised:  two  consular  armies  were  enrolled.  Veturius  was 
sent  against  the  Volscians  to  carry  on  an  offensive  war.  Tri- 
cipitinus, being  posted  to  protect  the  territory  of  the  allies 
from  devastation,  proceeded  no  further  than  into  the  country 
of  the  Hernicans.  Veturius  routed  and  put  the  enemy  to 
flight  in  the  first  engagement.  A  party  of  plunderers,  led  over 
the  Praenestine  Mountains,  and  from  thence  sent  down  into 
the  plains,  was  unobserved  by  Lucretius,  while  he  lay  en- 
camped among  the  Hernicans.  These  laid  waste  all  the  coun- 
try around  Praeneste  and  Gabii:  from  the  Gabinian  territory 
they  turned  their  course  toward  the  heights  of  Tusculum; 
great  alarm  was  excited  in  the  city  of  Rome  also,  more  from 
the  suddenness  of  the  affair  than  because  there  was  not  suf- 
ficient strength  to  repel  the  attack.  Quintus  Fabius  was  in 
command  of  the  city;  he,  having  armed  the  young  men  and 
posted  guards,  made  things  secure  and  tranquil.  The  enemy, 
therefore,  not  venturing  to  approach  the  city,  when  they  were 
returning  by  a  circuitous  route,  carrying  off  plunder  from 
the  adjacent  places,  their  caution  being  now  more  relaxed, 
in  proportion  as  they  removed  to  a  greater  distance  from  the 
enemy's  city,  fell  in  with  the  consul  Lucretius,  who  had  al- 
ready reconnoitred  his  lines  of  march,  and  whose  army  was 
drawn  up  in  battle  array  and  resolved  upon  an  engagement. 
Accordingly,  having  attacked  them  with  predetermined  reso- 
lution, though  with  considerably  inferior  forces,  they  routed 
and  put  to  flight  their  numerous  army,  while  smitten  with 
sudden  panic,  and  having  driven  them  into  the  deep  valleys, 
where  means  of  egress  were  not  easy,  they  surrounded  them. 
There  the  power  of  the  Volscians  was  almost  entirely  anni- 
hilated. In  some  annals,  I  find  that  thirteen  thousand  four 

1  The  ten  leading  senators  held  the  office  in  rotation  for  five"  days  each, 
until  the  consular  comitia  were  held. — D.  O. 
*  August  nth. 


LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.462 

hundred  and  seventy  fell  in  battle  and  in  flight,  that  one  thou- 
sand seven  hundred  and  fifty  were  taken  alive,  that  twenty- 
seven  military  standards  were  captured :  and  although  in  these 
accounts  there  may  have  been  some  exaggeration  in  regard 
to  numbers,  undoubtedly  great  slaughter  took  place.  The 
victorious  consul,  having  obtained  immense  booty,  returned 
to  his  former  standing  camp.  Then  the  consuls  joined  camps. 
The  Volscians  and  ^Equans  also  united  their  shattered 
strength.  This  was  the  third  battle  in  that  year;  the  same 
good  fortune  gave  them  victory;  the  enemy  was  routed,  and 
their  camp  taken. 

Thus  the  affairs  of  Rome  returned  to  their  former  condi- 
tion: and  successes  abroad  immediately  excited  commotions 
in  the  city.  Gaius  Terentilius  Harsa  was  tribune  of  the  people 
in  that  year:  he,  considering  that  an  opportunity  was  afforded 
for  tribunician  intrigues  during  the  absence  of  the  consuls, 
began,  after  railing  against  the  arrogance  of  the  patricians  for 
several  days  before  the  people,  to  inveigh  chiefly  against  the 
consular  authority,  as  being  excessive  and  intolerable  for  a 
free  state:  for  that  in  name  only  was  it  less  hateful,  in  reality 
it  was  almost  more  cruel  than  the  authority  of  the  kings :  that 
forsooth  in  place  of  one,  two  masters  had  been  accepted,  with 
unbounded  and  unlimited  power,  who,  themselves  unre- 
strained and  unbridled,  directed  all  the  terrors  of  the  law,  and 
all  kinds  of  punishments  against  the  commons.  Now,  in  order 
that  their  unbounded  license  might  not  last  forever,  he  would 
bring  forward  a  law  that  five  persons  be  appointed  to  draw 
up  laws  regarding  the  consular  power,  by  which  the  consul 
should  use  that  right  which  the  people  should  have  given 
him  over  them,  not  considering  their  own  caprice  and  license 
as  law.  Notice  having  been  given  of  this  law,  as  the  pa- 
tricians were  afraid,  lest,  in  the  absence  of  the  consuls,  they 
should  be  subjected  to  the  yoke,  the  senate  was  convened 
by  Quintus  Fabius,  prefect  of  the  city,  who  inveighed  so  ve- 
hemently against  the  bill  and  its  proposer  that  no  kind  of 
threats  or  intimidation  was  omitted  by  him,  which  both  the 
consuls  could  supply,  even  though  they  surrounded  the  trib- 
une in  all  their  exasperation :  That  he  had  lain  in  wait,  and, 
having  seized  a  favourable  opportunity,  had  made  an  attack 
on  the  commonwealth.  If  the  gods  in  their  anger  had  given 
them  any  tribune  like  him  in  the  preceding  year,  during  the 
pestilence  and  war,  it  could  not  have  been  endured:  that, 
when  both  the  consuls  were  dead,  and  the  state  prostrate  and 
enfeebled,  in  the  midst  of  the  general  confusion  he  would  have 
proposed  laws  to  abolish  the  consular  government  altogether 


B.  C.  461]  THE  TERENTILIAN  LAW  159 

from  the  state;  that  he  would  have  headed  the  Volscians  and 
./Equans  in  an  attack  on  the  city.  What?  if  the  consuls  be- 
haved in  a  tyrannical  or  cruel  manner  against  any  of  the  citi- 
zens, was  it  not  open  to  him  to  appoint  a  day  of  trial  for  them, 
to  arraign  them  before  those  very  judges  against  any  one  of 
whom  severity  might  have  been  exercised?  That  he  by  his 
conduct  was  rendering,  not  the  consular  authority,  but  the 
tribunician  power  hateful  and  insupportable:  which,  after 
having  been  in  a  state  of  peace,  and  on  good  terms  with  the 
patricians,  was  now  being  brought  back  anew  to  its  former 
mischievous  practices:  nor  did  he  beg  of  him  not  to  proceed 
as  he  had  begun.  "  Of  you,  the  other  tribunes,"  said  Fa- 
bius,  "  we  beg,  that  you  will  first  of  all  consider  that  that 
power  was  appointed  for  the  aid  of  individuals,  not  for  the 
ruin  of  the  community :  that  you  were  created  tribunes  of  the 
commons,  not  enemies  of  the  patricians.  To  us  it  is  distress- 
ing, to  you  a  source  of  odium,  that  the  republic,  now  bereft 
of  its  chief  magistrates,  should  be  attacked;  you  will  diminish 
not  your  rights,  but  the  odium  against  you.  Confer  with  your 
colleague,  that  he  may  postpone  this  business  till  the  arrival 
of  the  consuls,  to  be  then  discussed  afresh:  even  the  ^Equans 
and  the  Volscians,  when  our  consuls  were  carried  off  by  pesti- 
lence last  year,  did  not  harass  us  with  a  cruel  and  tyrannical 
war."  The  tribunes  conferred  with  Terentilius,  and  the  bill 
being  to  all  appearance  deferred,  but  in  reality  abandoned, 
the  consuls  were  immediately  sent  for. 

Lucretius  returned  with  immense  spoil,  and  much  greater 
glory;  and  this  glory  he  increased  on  his  arrival,  by  exposing 
all  the  booty  in  the  Campus  Martius,  so  that  each  person 
might,  for  the  space  of  three  days,  recognise  what  belonged 
to  him  and  carry  it  away;  the  remainder,  for  which  no  owners 
were  forthcoming,  was  sold.  A  triumph  was  by  universal 
consent  due  to  the  consul:  but  the  matter  was  deferred,  as 
the  tribune  again  urged  his  law;  this  to  the  consul  seemed  of 
greater  importance.  The  business  was  discussed  for  several 
days,  both  in  the  senate  and  before  the  people:  at  last  the 
tribune  yielded  to  the  majesty  of  the  consul,  and  desisted;  then 
their  due  honour  was  paid  to  the  general  and  his  army.  He 
triumphed  over  the  Volscians  and  JEquans:  his  troops  fol- 
lowed him  in  his  triumph.  The  other  consul  was  allowed  to 
enter  the  city  in  ovation  *  unaccompanied  by  his  soldiers. 

In  the  following  year  the  Terentilian  law,  being  brought 
forward  again  by  the  entire  college,  engaged  the  serious  at- 
tention of  the  new  consuls,  who  were  Publius  Volumnius  and 
1  A  lesser  form  of  triumph. 


I00  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.461 

Servius  Sulpicius.  In  that  year  the  sky  seemed  to  be  on  fire, 
and  a  violent  earthquake  took  place:  it  was  believed  that  an 
ox  spoke,  a  phenomenon  which  had  not  been  credited  in  the 
previous  year:  among  other  prodigies  there  was  a  shower  of 
flesh,  which  a  large  flock  of  birds  is  said  to  have  carried  off 
by  pecking  at  the  falling  pieces :  that  which  fell  to  the  ground 
is  said  to  have  lain  scattered  about  just  as  it  was  for  several 
days,  without  becoming  tainted.  The  books  were  consulted  1 
by  the  duumviri  for  sacred  rites:  dangers  of  attacks  to  be 
made  on  the  highest  parts  of  the  city,  and  of  consequent  blood- 
shed, were  predicted  as  threatening  from  an  assemblage  of 
strangers;  among  other  things,  admonition  was  given  that 
all  intestine  disturbances  should  be  abandoned.2  The  tribunes 
alleged  that  that  was  done  to  obstruct  the  law,  and  a  desper- 
ate contest  was  at  hand. 

On  a  sudden,  however,  that  the  same  order  of  events  might 
be  renewed  each  year,  the  Hernicans  announced  that  the 
Volscians  and  the  ^quans,  in  spite  of  their  strength  being 
much  impaired,  were  recruiting  their  armies:  that  the  centre 
of  events  was  situated  at  Antium;  that  the  colonists  of  An- 
tium  openly  held  councils  at  Ecetra:  that  there  was  the  head 
— there  was  the  strength — of  the  war.  As  soon  as  this  an- 
nouncement was  made  in  the  senate,  a  levy  was  proclaimed: 
the  consuls  were  commanded  to  divide  the  management  of  the 
war  between  them;  that  the  Volscians  should  be  the  sphere 
of  action  of  the  one,  the  yEquans  of  the  other.  The  tribunes 
loudly  declared  openly  in  the  forum  that  the  story  of  the  Vol- 
scian  war  was  nothing  but  a  got-up  farce:  that  the  Hernicans 
had  been  trained  to  act  their  parts:  that  the  liberty  of  the 
Roman  people  was  now  not  even  crushed  by  manly  efforts, 
but  was  baffled  by  cunning;  because  it  was  now  no  longer 
believed  that  the  Volscians  and  the  ^quans  who  were  almost 
utterly  annihilated,  could  of  themselves  begin  hostilities,  new 
enemies  were  sought  for:  that  a  loyal  colony,  and  one  in 
their  very  vicinity,  was  being  rendered  infamous :  that  war 
was  proclaimed  against  the  unoffending  people  of  Antium,  in 
reality  waged  with  the  commons  of  Rome,  whom,  loaded  with 
arms,  they  were  determined  to  drive  out  of  the  city  with  pre- 
cipitous haste,  wreaking  their  vengeance  on  the  tribunes  by 
the  exile  and  expulsion  of  their  fellow-citizens.  That  by  these 

1  The  Sibylline  books,  supposed  to  have  been  sold  to  Tarquinius  Su- 
perbus  by  the  Sibyl  of  Cumae  :  they  were  written  in  Greek  hexameter 
verses.  In  times  of  emergency  and  distress  they  were  consulted  and  in- 
terpreted by  special  priests  (the  duumviri  here  mentioned). 

1  It  will  be  frequently  observed  that  the  patricians  utilized  their  mo- 
nopoly of  religious  offices  to  effect  their  own  ends. — D.  O.  T"" m 


B.  C.  461]  OBSTRUCTION  OF  THE  LAW  l6l 

means — and  let  them  not  think  that  there  was  any  other  ob- 
ject contemplated — the  law  was  defeated,  unless,  while  the 
matter  was  still  in  abeyance,  while  they  were  still  at  home 
and  in  the  garb  of  citizens,  they  took  precautions,  so  as  to 
avoid  being  driven  out  of  possession  of  the  city,  or  being 
subjected  to  the  yoke.  If  they  only  had  spirit,  support  would 
not  be  wanting:  that  all  the  tribunes  were  unanimous:  that 
there  was  no  apprehension  from  abroad,  no  danger.  That 
the  gods  had  taken  care,  in  the  preceding  year,  that  their  lib- 
erty could  be  defended  with  safety.  Thus  spoke  the  tribunes. 
But,  on  the  other  side,  the  consuls,  having  placed  their 
chairs  1  within  view  of  them,  were  holding  the  levy ;  thither 
the  tribunes  hastened  down,  and  carried  the  assembly  along 
with  them ;  a  few 2  were  summoned,  as  it  were,  by  way  of 
making  an  experiment,  and  instantly  violence  ensued.  Whom- 
soever the  lictor  laid  hold  of  by  order  of  the  consul,  him  the 
tribune  ordered  to  be  released;  nor  did  his  own  proper  juris- 
diction set  a  limit  to  each,  but  they  rested  their  hopes  on 
force,  and  whatever  they  set  their  mind  upon,  was  to  be 
gained  by  violence.  Just  as  the  tribunes  had  behaved  in  im- 
peding the  levy,  in  the  same  manner  did  the  consuls  conduct 
themselves  in  obstructing  the  law  which  was  brought  for- 
ward on  each  assembly  day.  The  beginning  of  the  riot  was, 
that  the  patricians  refused  to  allow  themselves  to  be  moved 
away,  when  the  tribunes  ordered  the  people  to  proceed  to 
give  their  vote.  Scarcely  any  of  the  older  citizens  mixed 
themselves  up  in  the  affair,  inasmuch  as  it  was  one  that  would 
not  be  directed  by  prudence,  but  was  entirely  abandoned  to 
temerity  and  daring.  The  consuls  also  frequently  kept  out 
of  the  way,  lest  in  the  general  confusion  they  might  expose 
their  dignity  to  insult.  There  was  one  Caeso  Quinctius,  a 
youth  who  prided  himself  both  on  the  nobility  of  his  descent, 
and  his  bodily  stature  and  strength;  to  these  endowments  be- 
stowed on  him  by  the  gods,  he  himself  had  added  many  brave 
deeds  in  war,  and  eloquence  in  the  forum;  so  that  no  one  in 
the  state  was  considered  readier  either  in  speech  or  action. 
When  he  had  taken  his  place  in  the  midst  of  a  body  of  the 
patricians,  pre-eminent  above  the  rest,  carrying  as  it  were 
in  his  eloquence  and  bodily  strength  dictatorships  and  con- 
sulships combined,  he  alone  withstood  the  storms  of  the  trib- 
unes and  the  populace.  Under  his  guidance  the  tribunes  were 
frequently  driven  from  the  forum,  the  commons  routed  and 
dispersed;  such  as  came  in  his  way,  came  off  ill-treated  and 
stripped :  so  that  it  became  quite  clear  that,  if  he  were  allowed 

1  Curule  chairs  of  office.  *  That  is,  recruits. — D.  O. 

XI 


162  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [8.0.461 

to  proceed  in  this  way,  the  law  was  as  good  as  defeated. 
Then,  when  the  other  tribunes  were  now  almost  thrown  into 
despair,  Aulus  Verginius,  one  of  the  college,  appointed  a  day 
for  Caeso  to  take  his  trial  on  a  capital  charge.  By  this  pro- 
ceeding he  rather  irritated  than  intimidated  his  violent  tem- 
per: so  much  the  more  vigorously  did  he  oppose  the  law, 
harass  the  commons,  and  persecute  the  tribunes,  as* if  in  a 
regular  war.  The  accuser  suffered  the  accused  to  rush  head- 
long to  his  ruin,  and  to  fan  the  flame  of  odium  and  supply 
material  for  the  charges  he  intended  to  bring  against  him:  in 
the  meantime  he  proceeded  with  the  law,  not  so  much  in  the 
hope  of  carrying  it  through,  as  with  the  object  of  provoking 
rash  action  on  the  part  of  Cseso.  After  that  many  inconsiderate 
expressions  and  actions  of  the  younger  patricians  were  put 
down  to  the  temper  of  Caeso  alone,  owing  to  the  suspicion 
with  which  he  was  regarded:  still  the  law  was  resisted.  Also 
Aulus  Verginius  frequently  remarked  to  the  people:  "Are 
you  now  sensible,  Quirites,  that  you  can  not  at  the  same  time 
have  Caeso  as  a  fellow-citizen,  and  the  law  which  you  desire? 
Though  why  do  I  speak  of  the  law?  he  is  a  hindrance  to  your 
liberty;  he  surpasses  all  the  Tarquins  in  arrogance.  Wait 
till  that  man  is  made  consul  or  dictator,  whom,  though  but  a 
private  citizen,  you  now  see  exercising  kingly  power  by  his 
strength  and  audacity."  Many  agreed,  complaining  that  they 
had  been  beaten  by  him:  and,  moreover,  urged  the  tribune 
to  go  through  with  the  prosecution. 

The  day  of  trial  was  now  at  hand,  and  it  was  evident  that 
people  in  general  considered  that  their  liberty  depended  on 
the  condemnation  of  Caeso:  then,  at  length  being  forced  to 
do  so,  he  solicited  the  commons  individually,  though  with  a 
strong  feeling  of  indignation;  his  relatives  and  the  principal 
men  of  the  state  attended  him.  Titus  Quinctius  Capitolinus, 
who  had  been  thrice  consul,  recounting  many  splendid 
achievements  of  his  own,  and  of  his  family,  declared  that  nei- 
ther in  the  Quinctian  family,  nor  in  the  Roman  state,  had 
there  ever  appeared  such  a  promising  genius  displaying  such 
early  valour.  That  he  himself  was  the  first  under  whom  he 
had  served,  that  he  had  often  in  his  sight  fought  against  the 
enemy.  Spurius  Furius  declared  that  Caeso,  having  been  sent 
to  him  by  Quinctius  Capitolinus,  had  come  to  his  aid  when  in 
the  midst  of  danger;  that  there  was  no  single  individual  by 
whose  exertions  he  considered  the  common  weal  had  been 
more  effectually  re-established.  Lucius  Lucretius,  the  consul 
of  the  preceding  year,  in  the  full  splendour  of  recent  glory, 
shared  his  own  meritorious  services  with  Caeso;  he  recounted 


B.  C.  461]  TRIAL  OF  CESO  163 

his  battles,  detailed  his  distinguished  exploits,  both  in  ex- 
peditions and  in  pitched  battle;  he  recommended  and  ad- 
vised them  to  choose  rather  that  a  youth  so  distinguished, 
endowed  with  all  the  advantages  of  nature  and  fortune,  and 
one  who  would  prove  the  greatest  support  of  whatsoever  state 
he  should  visit,  should  continue  to  be  a  fellow-citizen  of  their 
own,  rather  than  become  the  citizen  of  a  foreign  state:  that 
with  respect  to  those  qualities  which  gave  offence  in  him,  hot- 
headedness  and  overboldness,  they  were  such  as  increasing 
years  removed  more  and  more  every  day :  that  what  was  lack- 
ing, prudence,  increased  day  by  day:  that  as  his  faults  de- 
clined, and  his  virtues  ripened,  they  should  allow  so  distin- 
guished a  man  to  grow  old  in  the  state.  Among  these  his 
father,  Lucius  Quinctius,  who  bore  the  surname  of  Cincin- 
natus,  without  dwelling  too  often  on  his  services,  so  as  not 
to  heighten  public  hatred,  but  soliciting  pardon  for  his  youth- 
ful errors,  implored  them  to  forgive  his  son  for  his  sake,  who 
had  not  given  offence  to  any  either  by  word  or  deed.  But 
while  some,  through  respect  or  fear,  turned  away  from  his 
entreaties,  others,  by  the  harshness  of  their  answer,  complain- 
ing that  they  and  their  friends  had  been  ill-treated,  made  no 
secret  of  what  their  decision  would  be. 

Independently  of  the  general  odium,  one  charge  in  par- 
ticular bore  heavily  on  the  accused;  that  Marcus  Volscius 
Fictor,  who  some  years  before  had  been  tribune  of  the  people, 
had  come  forward  to  bear  testimony:  that  not  long  after  the 
pestilence  had  raged  in  the  city,  he  had  fallen  in  with  a  party 
of  young  men  rioting  in  the  Subura ; x  that  a  scuffle  had  taken 
place:  and  that  his  elder  brother,  not  yet  perfectly  recovered 
from  his  illness,  had  been  knocked  down  by  Caeso  with  a  blow 
of  his  fist:  that  he  had  been  carried  home  half  dead  in  the 
arms  of  some  bystanders,  and  that  he  was  ready  to  declare 
that  he  had  died  from  the  blow:  and  that  he  had  not  been 
permitted  by  the  consuls  of  former  years  to  obtain  redress  for 
such  an  atrocious  affair.  In  consequence  of  Volscius  vocif- 
erating these  charges,  the  people  became  so  excited  that  Caeso 
was  near  being  killed  through  the  violence  of  the  crowd.  Ver- 
ginius  ordered  him  to  be  seized  and  dragged  off  to  prison. 
The  patricians  opposed  force  to  force.  Titus  Quinctius  ex- 
claimed that  a  person  for  whom  a  day  of  trial  for  a  capital 
offence  had  been  appointed,  and  whose  trial  was  now  close 
at  hand,  ought  not  to  be  outraged  before  he  was  condemned, 

1  The  worst  quarter  of  the  city — its  Whitechapel,  as  it  were.  It  lay, 
roughly  speaking,  from  the  Forum  eastward  along  the  valley  between 
the  Esquiline  and  Viminal  Hills. — D.  O. 


164  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  461 

and  without  a  hearing.  The  tribune  replied  that  he  would  not 
inflict  punishment  on  him  before  he  was  condemned:  that  he 
would,  however,  keep  him  in  prison  until  the  day  of  trial,  that 
the  Roman  people  might  have  an  opportunity  of  inflicting 
punishment  on  one  who  had  killed  a  man.1  The  tribunes 
being  appealed  to,  got  themselves  out  of  the  difficulty  in  re- 
gard to  their  prerogative  of  rendering  aid,  by  a  resolution 
that  adopted  a  middle  course:  they  forbade  his  being  thrown 
into  confinement,  and  declared  it  to  be  their  wish  that  the  ac- 
cused should  be  brought  to  trial,  and  that  a  sum  of  money 
should  be  promised  to  the  people,  in  case  he  should  not  ap- 
pear. How  large  a  sum  of  money  ought  to  be  promised  was 
a  matter  of  doubt:  the  decision  was  accordingly  referred  to 
the  senate.  The  accused  was  detained  in  public  custody  until 
the  patricians  should  be  consulted:  it  was  decided  that  bail 
should  be  given:  they  bound  each  surety  in  the  sum  of  three 
thousand  asses;  how  many  sureties  should  be  given  was  left 
to  the  tribunes;  they  fixed  the  number  at  ten:  on  this  num- 
ber of  sureties  the  prosecutor  admitted  the  accused  to  bail.2 
He  was  the  first  who  gave  public  sureties.  Being  discharged 
from  the  forum,  he  went  the  following  night  into  exile  among 
the  Tuscans.  When  on  the  day  of  trial  it  was  pleaded  that  he 
had  withdrawn  into  voluntary  exile,  nevertheless,  at  a  meet- 
ing of  the  comitia  under  the  presidency  of  Verginius,  his  col- 
leagues, when  appealed  to,  dismissed  the  assembly : 3  the  fine 
was  rigorously  exacted  from  his  father,  so  that,  having  sold 
all  his  effects,  he  lived  for  a  considerable  time  in  an  out-of- 
the-way  cottage  on  the  other  side  of  the  Tiber,  as  if  in  exile. 
This  trial  and  the  proposal  of  the  law  gave  full  employ- 
ment to  the  state :  in  regard  to  foreign  wars  there  was  peace. 
When  the  tribunes,  as  if  victorious,  imagined  that  the  law  was 
all  but  passed  owing  to  the  dismay  of  the  patricians  at  the 
banishment  of  Caeso,  and  in  fact,  as  far  as  regarded  the  seniors 
of  the  patricians,  they  had  relinquished  all  share  in  the  admin- 
istration of  the  commonwealth,  the  juniors,  more  especially 
those  who  were  the  intimate  friends  of  Caeso,  redoubled  their 
resentful  feelings  against  the  commons,  and  did  not  allow  their 
spirits  to  fail ;  but  the  greatest  improvement  was  made  in 
this  particular,  that  they  tempered  their  animosity  by  a  certain 
degree  of  moderation.  The  first  time  when,  after  Caeso's  ban- 
ishment, the  law;  began  to  be  brought  forward,  these,  arrayed 

1  That  is,  to  insure  punishment  and  practically  abnegate  the  right  an 
accused  person  had  of  escaping  sentence  by  voluntary  exile. — D.  O. 

*  Perhaps  the  first  bail-bond  historically  noted. — D.  O. 

*  That  is,  refused  to  accept  the  plea. 


B.  c.  460]  SEIZURE  OF  THE   CAPITOL  165 

and  well  prepared,  with  a  numerous  body  of  clients,  so  attacked 
the  tribunes,  as  soon  as  they  afforded  a  pretext  for  it  by  at- 
tempting to  remove  them,  that  no  one  individual  carried  home 
from  thence  a  greater  share  than  another,  either  of  glory 
or  ill-will,  but  the  people  complained  that  in  place  of  one 
Caeso  a  thousand  had  arisen.  During  the  days  that  intervened, 
when  the  tribunes  took  no  proceedings  regarding  the  law, 
nothing  could  be  more  mild  or  peaceable  than  those  same 
persons;  they  saluted  the  plebeians  courteously,  entered  into 
conversation  with  them,  and  invited  them  home :  they  attend- 
ed them  in  the  forum,1  and  suffered  the  tribunes  themselves 
to  hold  the  rest  of  their  meetings  without  interruption:  they 
were  never  discourteous  to  any  one  either  in  public  or  in 
private,  except  on  occasions  when  the  matter  of  the  law  be- 
gan to  be  agitated.  In  other  respects  the  young  men  were 
popular.  And  not  only  did  the  tribunes  transact  all  their 
other  affairs  without  disturbance,  but  they  were  even  re-elected 
for  the  following  year.  Without  even  an  offensive  expression, 
much  less  any  violence  being  employed,  but  by  soothing  and 
carefully  managing  the  commons  the  young  patricians  gradu- 
ally rendered  them  tractable.  By  these  artifices  the  law  was 
evaded  through  the  entire  year. 

The  consuls  Gaius  Claudius,  the  son  of  Appius,  and  Pub- 
lius  Valerius  Publicola,  took  over  the  government  from  their 
predecessors  in  a  more  tranquil  condition.  The  next  year  had 
brought  with  it  nothing  new:  thoughts  about  carrying  the 
law,  or  submitting  to  it,  engrossed  the  attention  of  the  state. 
The  more  the  younger  patricians  strove  to  insinuate  themselves 
into  favour  with  the  plebeians,  the  more  strenuously  did  the 
tribunes  strive  on  the  other  hand  to  render  them  suspicious 
in  the  eyes  of  the  commons  by  alleging  that  a  conspiracy  had 
been  formed;  that  Caeso  was  in  Rome;  that  plans  had  been 
concerted  for  assassinating  the  tribunes,  for  butchering  the 
commons.  That  the  commission  assigned  by  the  elder  mem- 
bers of  the  patricians  was,  that  the  young  men  should  abolish 
the  tribunician  power  from  the  state,  and  the  form  of  govern- 
ment should  be  the  same  as  it  had  been  before  the  occupation 
of  the  Sacred  Mount.  At  the  same  time  a  war  from  the  Vol- 
scians  and  vEquans,  which  had  now  become  a  fixed  and  almost 
regular  occurrence  every  year,  was  apprehended,  and  another 
evil  nearer  home  started  up  unexpectedly.  Exiles  and  slaves, 
to  the  number  of  two  thousand  five  hundred,  seized  the 
Capitol  and  citadel  during  the  night,  under  the  command  of 
Appius  Herdonius,  a  Sabine.  Those  who  refused  to  join  the 

1  That  is,  defended  them  in  court. 


166  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  C.  460 

conspiracy  and  take  up  arms  with  them,  were  immediately 
massacred  in  the  citadel :  others,  during  the  disturbance,  fled 
in  headlong  panic  down  to  the  forum:  the  cries,  "  To  arms! ' 
and  "  The  enemy  are  in  the  city !  "  were  heard  alternately.  The 
consuls  neither  dared  to  arm  the  commons,  nor  to  surfer  them 
to  remain  unarmed ;  uncertain  what  sudden  calamity  had  as- 
sailed the  city,  whether  from  without  or  within,  whether  aris- 
ing from  the  hatred  of  the  commons  or  the  treachery  of  the 
slaves :  they  tried  to  quiet  the  disturbances,  and  while  trying 
to  do  so  they  sometimes  aroused  them;  for  the  populace, 
panic-stricken  and  terrified,  could  not  be  directed  by  authority. 
They  gave  out  arms,  however,  but  not  indiscriminately ;  only 
so  that,  as  it  was  yet  uncertain  who  the  enemy  were,  there 
might  be  a  protection  sufficiently  reliable  to  meet  all  emergen- 
cies. The  remainder  of  the  night  they  passed  in  posting 
guards  in  suitable  places  throughout  the  city,  anxious  and  un- 
certain who  the  enemy  were,  and  how  great  their  number. 
Daylight  subsequently  disclosed  the  war  and  its  leader.  Ap- 
pius  Herdonius  summoned  the  slaves  to  liberty  from  the  Capi- 
tol, saying,  that  he  had  espoused  the  cause  of  all  the  most 
unfortunate,  in  order  to  bring  back  to  their  country  those  who 
had  been  exiled  and  driven  out  by  wrong,  and  to  remove  the 
grievous  yoke  from  the  slaves :  that  he  had  rather  that  were 
done  under  the  authority  of  the  Roman  people.  If  there  were 
no  hope  in  that  quarter,  he  would  rouse  the  Volscians  and 
^Equans,  and  would  try  even  the  most  desperate  remedies. 

The  whole  affair  now  began  to  be  clearer  to  the  patricians 
and  consuls ;  besides  the  news,  however,  which  was  officially 
announced,  they  dreaded  lest  this  might  be  a  scheme  of  the 
Veientines  or  Sabines ;  and,  further,  as  there  were  so  many  of 
the  enemy  in  the  city,  lest  the  Sabine  and  Etruscan  troops 
might  presently  come  up  according  to  a  concerted  plan,  and 
their  inveterate  enemies,  the  Volscians  and  JEquans  should 
come,  not  to  ravage  their  territories,  as  before,  but  even  to  the 
gates  of  the  city,  as  being  already  in  part  taken.  Many  and 
various  were  their  fears,  the  most  prominent  among  which 
was  their  dread  of  the  slaves,  lest  each  should  harbour  an 
enemy  in  his  own  house,  one  whom  it  was  neither  sufficiently 
safe  to  trust,  nor,  by  distrusting,  to  pronounce  unworthy  of 
confidence,  lest  he  might  prove  a  more  deadly  foe.  And  it 
scarcely  seemed  that  the  evil  could  be  resisted  by  harmony:  no 
one  had  any  fear  of  tribunes  or  commons,  while  other  troubles 
so  predominated  and  threatened  to  swamp  the  state:  that  fear 
seemed  an  evil  of  a  mild  nature,  and  one  that  always  arose 
during  the  cessation  of  other  ills,  and  then  appeared  to  be  lulled 


B.C.  460]  SPEECH  OF  VALERIUS  167 

to  rest  by  external  alarm.  Yet  at  the  present  time  that,  almost 
more  than  anything  else,  weighed  heavily  on  their  sinking  for- 
tunes: for  such  madness  took  possession  of  the  tribunes,  that 
they  contended  that  not  war,  but  an  empty  appearance  of  war, 
had  taken  possession  of  the  Capitol,  to  divert  the  people's  minds 
from  attending  to  the  law:  that  these  friends  and  clients  of  the 
patricians  would  depart  in  deeper  silence  than  they  had  come, 
if  they  once  perceived  that,  by  the  law  being  passed,  they  had 
raised  these  tumults  in  vain.  They  then  held  a  meeting  for 
passing  the  law,  having  called  away  the  people  from  arms.  In 
the  meantime,  the  consuls  convened  the  senate,  another  dread 
presenting  itself  by  the  action  of  the  tribunes,  greater  than  that 
which  the  nightly  foe  had  occasioned. 

When  it  was  announced  that  the  men  were  laying  aside 
their  arms,  and  quitting  their  posts,  Publius  Valerius,  while 
his  colleague  still  detained  the  senate,  hastened  from  the  sen- 
ate-house, and  went  thence  into  the  meeting-place  to  the  trib- 
unes. "  What  is  all  this,"  said  he,  "  O  tribunes  ?  Are  you  de- 
termined to  overthrow  the  commonwealth  under  the  guidance 
and  auspices  of  Appius  Herdonius  ?  Has  he  been  so  success- 
ful in  corrupting  you,  he  who,  by  his  authority,  has  not  even 
influenced  your  slaves?  When  the  enemy  is  over  our  heads, 
is  it  your  pleasure  that  we  should  give  up  our  arms,  and  laws 
be  proposed  ?  "  Then,  directing  his  words  to  the  populace : 
"  If,  Quirites,  no  concern  for  your  city,  or  for  yourselves, 
moves  you,  at  least  revere  the  gods  of  your  country,  now  made 
captive  by  the  enemy.  Jupiter,  best  and  greatest,  Queen 
Juno,  and  Minerva,  and  the  other  gods  and  goddesses,1  are 
being  besieged ;  a  camp  of  slaves  now  holds  possession  of  the 
tutelary  gods  of  the  state.  Does  this  seem  to  you  the  be- 
haviour of  a  state  in  its  senses?  Such  a  crowd  of  enemies  is 
not  only  within  the  walls,  but  in  the  citadel,  commanding  the 
forum  and  senate-house :  in  the  meanwhile  meetings  are  being 
held  in  the  forum,  the  senate  is  in  the  senate-house:  just  as 
when  tranquility  prevails,  the  senator  gives  his  opinion,  the 
other  Romans  their  votes.  Does  it  not  behoove  all  patricians 
and  plebeians,  consuls,  tribunes,  gods,  and  men  of  all  classes, 
to  bring  aid  with  arms  in  their  hands,  to  hurry  into  the  Capitol, 
to  liberate  and  restore  to  peace  that  most  august  residence  of 
Jupiter,  best  and  greatest  ?  O  Father  Romulus !  do  thou  in- 
spire thy  progeny  with  that  determination  of  thine,  by  which 
thou  didst  formerly  recover  from  these  same  Sabines  this  cita- 

1  The  Temple  of  Jupiter  in  the  Capitol  was  divided  into  three  parts : 
the  middle  was  sacred  to  Jupiter,  the  right  to  Minerva,  the  left  to  Juno. 
By  the  "other  gods"  are  meant  Terminus,  Fides,  Juventas. 


168  LIVY'S   ROMAN    HISTORY  [3.0.460 

del,  when  captured  by  gold.  Order  them  to  pursue  this  same 
path,  which  thou,  as  leader,  and  thy  army,  pursued.  Lo !  I,  as 
consul,  will  be  the  first  to  follow  thee  and  thy  footsteps,  as  far 
as  I,  a  mortal,  can  follow  a  god."  Then,  in  concluding  his 
speech,  he  said  that  he  was  ready  to  take  up  arms,  that  he 
summoned  every  citizen  of  Rome  to  arms ;  if  any  one  should 
oppose,  that  he,  heedless  of  the  consular  authority,  the  tribuni- 
cian  power,  and  the  devoting  laws,  would  consider  him  as  an 
enemy,  whoever  and  wheresoever  he  might  be,  in  the  Capi- 
tol, or  in  the  forum.  Let  the  tribunes  order  arms  to  be  taken 
up  against  Publius  Valerius  the  consul,  since  they  forbade  it 
against  Appius  Herdonius;  that  he  would  dare  to  act  in  the 
case  of  the  tribunes,  as  the  founder  of  his  family  1  had  dared  to 
act  in  the  case  of  the  kings.  It  was  now  clear  that  matters 
would  come  to  violent  extremities,  and  that  a  quarrel  among 
Romans  would  be  exhibited  to  the  enemy.  The  law,  however, 
could  neither  be  carried,  nor  could  the  consul  proceed  to  the 
Capitol.  Night  put  an  end  to  the  struggle  that  had  been 
begun;  the  tribunes  yielded  to  the  night,  dreading  the  arms 
of  the  consuls.2  When  the  ringleaders  of  the  disturbances  had 
been  removed,  the  patricians  went  about  among  the  commons, 
and,  mingling  in  their  meetings,  spread  statements  suited  to 
the  occasion :  they  advised  them  to  take  heed  into  what  danger 
they  were  bringing  the  commonwealth :  that  the  contest  was 
not  one  between  patricians  and  commons,  but  that  patricians 
and  commons  together,  the  fortress  of  thfe  city,  the  temples  of 
the  gods,  the  guardian  gods  of  the  state  and  of  private  families, 
were  being  delivered  up  to  the  enemy.  While  these  measures 
were  being  taken  in  the  forum  for  the  purpose  of  appeasing  the 
disturbances,  the  consuls  in  the  meantime  had  retired  to  visit 
the  gates  and  the  walls,  fearing  that  the  Sabines  or  the  Veien- 
tine  enemy  might  bestir  themselves. 

During  the  same  night,  messengers  reached  Tusculum  with 
news  of  the  capture  of  the  citadel,  the  seizure  of  the  Capitol, 
and  also  of  the  generally  disturbed  condition  of  the  city.  Lu- 
cius Mamilius  was  at  that  time  dictator  at  Tusculum ;  he,  hav- 
ing immediately  convoked  the  senate  and  introduced  the  mes- 
sengers, earnestly  advised,  that  they  should  not  wait  until 
ambassadors  came  from  Rome,  suing  for  assistance;  that  the 
danger  itself  and  importance  of  the  crisis,  the  gods  of  allies, 
and  the  good  faith  of  treaties,  demanded  it;  that  the  gods 
would  never  afford  them  a  like  opportunity  of  obliging  so 
powerful  a  state  and  so  near  a  neighbour.  It  was  resolved  that 

1  Publicola,  the  father  of  Brutus. 

*  That  is,  personal  violence  from  the  young  patricians, — D,  O, 


fi.  C.  460]  RECOVERY  OF  THE  CAPITOL  l60 

assistance  should  be  sent :  the  young  men  were  enrolled,  and 
arms  given  them.  On  their  way  to  Rome  at  break  of  day,  at 
a  distance  they  exhibited  the  appearance  of  enemies.  The 
vEquans  or  Volscians  were  thought  to  be  coming.  Then, 
after  the  groundless  alarm  was  removed,  they  were  admitted 
into  the  city,  and  descended  in  a  body  into  the  forum.  There 
Publius  Valerius,  having  left  his  colleague  with  the  guards  of 
the  gates,  was  now  drawing  up  his  forces  in  order  of  battle. 
The  great  influence  of  the  man  produced  an  effect  on  the  peo- 
ple, when  he  declared  that,  when  the  Capitol  was  recovered, 
and  the  city  restored  to  peace,  if  they  allowed  themselves  to  be 
convinced  what  hidden  guile  was  contained  in  the  law  pro- 
posed by  the  tribunes,  he,  mindful  of  his  ancestors,  mindful 
of  his  surname,  and  remembering  that  the  duty  of  protect- 
ing the  people  had  been  handed  down  to  him  as  hereditary  by 
his  ancestors,  would  offer  no  obstruction  to  the  meeting  of  the 
people.  Following  him,  as  their  leader,  in  spite  of  the  fruitless 
opposition  of  the  tribunes,  they  marched  up  the  ascent  of  the 
Capitoline  Hill.  The  Tusculan  troops  also  joined  them.  Al- 
lies and  citizens  vied  with  each  other  as  to  which  of  them 
should  appropriate  to  themselves  the  honour  of  recovering  the 
citadel.  Each  leader  encouraged  his  own  men.  Then  the 
enemy  began  to  be  alarmed,  and  placed  no  dependence  on  any- 
thing but  their  position.  While  they  were  in  this  state  of 
alarm,  the  Romans  and  allies  advanced  to  attack  them.  They 
had  already  burst  into  the  porch  of  the  temple,  when  Publius 
Valerius  was  slain  while  cheering  on  the  fight  at  the  head  of 
his  men.  Publius  Volumnius,  a  man  of  consular  rank,  saw 
him  falling.  Having  directed  his  men  to  cover  the  body,  he 
himself  rushed  forward  to  take  the  place  and  duty  of  the  con- 
sul. Owing  to  their  excitement  and  impetuosity,  this  great 
misfortune  passed  unnoticed  by  the  soldiers;  they  conquered 
before  they  perceived  that  they  were  fighting  without  a  leader. 
Many  of  the  exiles  defiled  the  temple  with  their  blood ;  many 
were  taken  prisoners:  Herdonius  was  slain.  Thus  the  Capi- 
tol was  recovered,  With  respect  to  the  prisoners,  punishment 
was  inflicted  on  each  according  to  his  station,  as  he  was  a  free- 
man or  a  slave.  The  Tusculans  received  the  thanks  of  the 
Romans:  the  Capitol  was  cleansed  and  purified.  The  com- 
mons are  stated  to  have  thrown  every  man  a  farthing  into  the 
consul's  house,  that  he  might  be  buried  with  more  splendid 
obsequies. 

Order  being  thus  established,  the  tribunes  then  urged  the 
patricians  to  fulfil  the  promise  given  by  Publius  Valerius; 
they  pressed  on  Claudius  to  free  the  shade  of  his  colleague 


LtVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [8.0.460 

from  breach  of  faith,  and  to  allow  the  matter  of  the  law  to 
proceed.  The  consul  asserted  that  he  would  not  suffer  the 
discussion  of  the  law  to  proceed,  until  he  had  appointed  a  col- 
league to  assist  him.  These  disputes  lasted  until  the  time  of 
the  elections  for  the  substitution  of  a  consul.  In  the  month  of 
December,  by  the  most  strenuous  exertions  of  the  patricians, 
Lucius  Quinctius  Cincinnatus,  Caeso's  father,  was  elected  con- 
sul, to  enter  upon  office  without  delay.  The  commons  were 
dismayed  at  being  about  to  have  for  consul  a  man  incensed 
against  them,  powerful  by  the  support  of  the  patricians,  by  his 
own  merit,  and  by  reason  of  his  three  sons,  not  one  of  whom 
was  inferior  to  Caeso  in  greatness  of  spirit,  while  they  were  his 
superiors  in  the  exercise  of  prudence  and  moderation,  whenever 
occasion  required.  When  he  entered  upon  office,  in  his  fre- 
quent harangues  from  the  tribunal,  he  was  not  more  vehe- 
ment in  restraining  the  commons  than  in  reproving  the  senate, 
owing  to  the  listlessness  of  which  body  the  tribunes  of  the  com- 
mons, now  become  a  standing  institution,  exercised  regal  au- 
thority, by  means  of  their  readiness  of  speech  and  prosecutions, 
not  as  if  in  a  republic  of  the  Roman  people,  but  as  if  in  an 
ill-regulated  household.  That  with  his  son  Caeso,  valour, 
constancy,  all  the  splendid  qualifications  of  youth  in  war  and 
in  peace,  had  been  driven  and  exiled  from  the  city  of  Rome : 
that  talkative  and  turbulent  men,  sowers  of  discord,  twice  and 
even  thrice  re-elected  tribunes  by  the  vilest  intrigues,  lived  in 
the  enjoyment  of  regal  irresponsibility.  "  Does  that  Aulus 
Verginius,"  said  he,  "  deserve  less  punishment  than  Appius 
Herdonius,  because  he  was  not  in  the  Capitol?  considerably 
more,  by  Hercules,  if  any  one  will  look  at  the  matter  fairly. 
Herdonius,  .if  nothing  else,  by  avowing  himself  an  enemy, 
thereby  as  good  as  gave  you  notice  to  take  up  arms :  this  man, 
by  denying  the  existence  of  war,  took  arms  out  of  your  hands, 
and  exposed  you  defenceless  to  the  attack  of  slaves  and  exiles. 
And  did  you — I  will  speak  with  all  due  respect  for  Gaius  Clau- 
dius and  Publius  Valerius,  now  no  more — did  you  decide  to  ad- 
vance against  the  Capitoline  Hill  before  you  expelled  those  ene- 
mies from  the  forum?  I  feel  ashamed  in  the  sight  of  gods  and 
men.  When  the  enemy  were  in  the  citadel,  in  the  Capitol,  when 
the  leader  of  the  exiles  and  slaves,  after  profaning  everything, 
took  up  his  residence  in  the  shrine  of  Jupiter,  best  and  greatest, 
arms  were  taken  up  at  Tusculum  sooner  than  at  Rome.  It 
was  a  matter  of  doubt  whether  Lucius  Mamilius,  the  Tusculan 
leader,  or  Publius  Valerius  and  Gaius  Claudius,  the  consuls, 
recovered  the  Roman  citadel,  and  we,  who  formerly  did  not 
suffer  the  Latins  to  touch  arms,  not  even  in  their  own  defence, 


B.  C.  460]  THE   ARMY  LED  OUT  171 

when  they  had  the  enemy  on  their  very  frontiers,  should  have 
been  taken  and  destroyed  now,  had  not  the  Latins  taken  up 
arms  of  their  own  accord.  Tribunes,  is  this  bringing  aid  to 
the  commons,  to  expose  them  in  a  defenceless  state  to  be 
butchered  by  the  enemy?  I  suppose,  if  any  one,  even  the 
humblest  individual  of  your  commons — which  portion  you 
have  as  it  were  broken  off  from  the  rest  of  the  state,  and  cre- 
ated a  country  and  a  commonwealth  of  your  own — if  any  one 
of  these  were  to  bring  you  word  that  his  house  was  beset  by 
an  armed  band  of  slaves,  you  would  think  that  assistance 
should  be  afforded  him:  was  then  Jupiter,  best  and  greatest, 
when  hemmed  in  by  the  arms  of  exiles  and  of  slaves,  deserving 
of  no  human  aid?  And  do  these  persons  claim  to  be  con- 
sidered sacred  and  inviolable,  to  whom  the  gods  themselves 
are  neither  sacred  nor  inviolable?  Well  but,  loaded  as  you 
are  with  crimes  against  both  gods  and  men,  you  proclaim 
that  you  will  pass  your  law  this  year.  Verily  then,  on  the  day 
I  was  created  consul,  it  was  a  disastrous  act  of  the  state,  much 
more  so  even  than  the  day  when  Publius  Valerius  the  consul 
fell,  if  you  shall  pass  it.  Now,  first  of  all,"  said  he,  "  Quirites, 
it  is  the  intention  of  myself  and  of  my  colleague  to  march  the 
legions  against  the  Volscians  and  the  ^Equans.  I  know  not  by 
what  fatality  we  find  the  gods  more  propitious  when  we  are  at 
war  than  in  peace.  How  great  the  danger  from  those  states 
would  have  been,  had  they  known  that  the  Capitol  was  be- 
sieged by  exiles,  it  is  better  to  conjecture  from  what  is  past, 
than  to  learn  by  actual  experience." 

The  consul's  harangue  had  a  great  effect  on  the  com- 
mons: the  patricians,  recovering  their  spirits,  believed  the 
state  re-established.  The  other  consul,  a  more  ardent  partner 
than  promoter  of  a  measure,  readily  allowing  his  colleague  to 
take  the  lead  in  measures  of  such  importance,  claimed  to  him- 
self his  share  of  the  consular  duty  in  carrying  these  measures 
into  execution.  Then  the  tribunes,  mocking  these  declara- 
tions as  empty,  went  on  to  ask  how  the  consuls  were  going  to 
lead  out  an  army,  seeing  that  no  one  would  allow  them  to  hold 
a  levy?  "But,"  replied  Quinctius,  "we  have  no  need  of  a 
levy,  since,  at  the  time  Publius  Valerius  gave  arms  to  the  com- 
mons to  recover  the  Capitol,  they  all  took  an  oath  to  him,  that 
they  would  assemble  at  the  command  of  the  consul,  and  would 
not  depart  without  his  permission.  We  therefore  publish  an 
order  that  all  of  you,  who  have  sworn,  attend  to-morrow 
under  arms  at  the  Lake  Regillus."  The  tribunes  then  began  to 
quibble,  and  wanted  to  absolve  the  people  from  their  obliga- 
tion, asserting  that  Quinctius  was  a  private  person  at  the 


172  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  460 

time  when  they  were  bound  by  the  oath.  But  that  disregard 
of  the  gods,  which  possesses  the  present  generation,  had  not 
yet  gained  ground  :  nor  did  every  one  accommodate  oaths  and 
laws  to  his  own  purposes,  by  interpreting  them  as  it  suited 
him,  but  rather  adapted  his  own  conduct  to  them.  Wherefore 
the  tribunes,  as  there  was  no  hope  of  obstructing  the  matter, 
attempted  to  delay  the  departure  of  the  army  the  more  earnest- 
ly on  this  account,  because  a  report  had  gone  out,  both  that 
the  augurs  had  been  ordered  to  attend  at  the  Lake  Regillus, 
and  that  a  place  was  to  be  consecrated,  where  business  might 
be  transacted  with  the  people  by  auspices :  and  whatever  had 
been  passed  at  Rome  by  tribunician  violence,  might  be  re- 
pealed there  in  the  assembly.1  That  all  would  order  what  the 
consuls  desired :  for  that  there  was  no  appeal  at  a  greater  dis- 
tance than  a  mile  2  from  the  city :  and  that  the  tribunes,  if  they 
should  come  there,  would,  like  the  rest  of  the  Quirites,  be  sub- 
jected to  the  consular  authority.  This  alarmed  them  :  but  the 
greatest  anxiety  which  affected  their  minds  was  because  Quinc- 
tius  frequently  declared  that  he  would  not  hold  an  election 
of  consuls.  That  the  malady  of  the  state  was  not  of  an  ordi- 
nary nature,  so  that  it  could  be  stopped  by  the  ordinary  reme- 
dies. That  the  commonwealth  required  a  dictator,  so  that 
whoever  attempted  to  disturb  the  condition  of  the  state,  might 
feel  that  from  the  dictatorship  there  was  no  appeal. 

The  senate  was  assembled  in  the  Capitol.  Thither  the  trib- 
unes came  with  the  commons  in  a  state  of  great  consternation : 
the  multitude,  with  loud  clamours,  implored  the  protection, 
now  of  the  consuls,  now  of  the  patricians:  nor  could  they 
move  the  consul  from  his  determination,  until  the  tribunes 
promised  that  they  would  submit  to  the  authority  of  the  senate. 
Then,  on  the  consul's  laying  before  them  the  demands  of  the 
tribunes  and  commons,  decrees  of  the  senate  were  passed :  that 
neither  should  the  tribunes  propose  the  law  during  that  year, 
nor  should  the  consuls  lead  out  the  army  from  the  city — that, 
for  the  future,  the  senate  decided  that  it  was  against  the  in- 
terests of  the  commonwealth  that  the  same  magistrates 
should  be  continued  and  the  same  tribunes  be  reappointed. 
The  consuls  conformed  to  the  authority  of  the  senate :  the  trib- 
unes were  reappointed,  notwithstanding  the  remonstrances  of 

1  Their  control  over  the  auspices  was  a  favourite  weapon  of  the  patri- 
cians, and  one  which  could  naturally  be  better  used  at  a  distance  from 
Rome.  The  frequency  of  its  use  would  seem  to  argue  an  adaptability  in 
the  devotional  feelings  of  the  nobles  at  least,  which  might  modify  our 
reliance  upon  the  statement  made  above  as  to  the  respect  for  the  gods 
then  prevalent  in  Rome. — D.  O. 

*  This  was  the  limit  of  the  tribunes'  authority. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  459]    QUINCTIUS  REFUSES  THE  CONSULSHIP          173 

the  consuls.  The  patricians  also,  that  they  might  not  yield 
to  the  commons  in  any  particular,  themselves  proposed  to 
re-elect  Lucius  Quinctius  consul.  No  address  of  the  consul 
was  delivered  with  greater  warmth  during  the  entire  year. 
"  Can  I  be  surprised,"  said  he,  "  if  your  authority  with  the  peo- 
ple is  held  in  contempt,  O  conscript  fathers?  it  is  you  your- 
selves who  are  weakening  it.  Forsooth,  because  the  com- 
mons have  violated  a  decree  of  the  senate,  by  reappointing 
their  magistrates,  you  yourselves  also  wish  it  to  be  violated, 
that  you  may  not  be  outdone  by  the  populace  in  rashness ;  as 
if  greater  power  in  the  state  consisted  in  the  possession  of 
greater  inconstancy  and  liberty  of  action ;  for  it  is  certainly 
more  inconstant  and  greater  folly  to  render  null  and  void 
one's  own  decrees  and  resolutions,  than  those  of  others.  Do 
you,  O  conscript  fathers,  imitate  the  unthinking  multitude ; 
and  do  you,  who  should  be  an  example  to  others,  prefer  to 
transgress  by  the  example  of  others,  rather  than  that  others 
should  act  rightly  by  yours,  provided  only  I  do  not  imitate  the 
tribunes,  nor  allow  myself  to  be  declared  consul,  contrary  to 
the  decree  of  the  senate.  But  as  for  you,  Gaius  Claudius,  I 
recommend  that  you,  as  well  as  myself,  restrain  the  Roman 
people  from  this  licentious  spirit,  and  that  you  be  persuaded 
of  this,  as  far  as  I  am  concerned,  that  I  shall  take  it  in  such  a 
spirit,  that  I  shall  not  consider  that  my  attainment  of  office 
has  been  obstructed  by  you,  but  that  the  glory  of  having  de- 
clined the  honour  has  been  augmented,  and  the  odium,  which 
would  threaten  me  if  it  were  continued,  lessened."  Thereupon 
they  issued  this  order  jointly :  That  no  one  should  support 
the  election  of  Lucius  Quinctius  as  consul :  if  any  one  should 
do  so,  that  they  would  not  allow  the  vote. 

The  consuls  elected  were  Quintus  Fabius  Vibulanus  (for 
the  third  time),  and  Lucius  Cornelius  Maluginensis.  The 
census  was  taken  during  that  year ;  it  was  a  matter  of  religious 
scruple  that  the  lustrum  should  be  closed,  on  account  of  the 
seizure  of  the  Capitol  and  the  death  of  the  consul.  In  the  con- 
sulship of  Quintus  Fabius  and  Lucius  Cornelius,  disturbances 
broke  out  immediately  at  the  beginning  of  the  year.  The 
tribunes  were  urging  on  the  commons.  The  Latins  and  Her- 
nicans  brought  word  that  a  formidable  war  was  threatening 
on  the  part  of  the  Volscians  and  ^quans ;  that  the  troops  of 
the  Volscians  were  now  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Antium. 
Great  apprehension  was  also  entertained,  that  the  colony  itself 
would  revolt :  and  with  difficulty  the  tribunes  were  prevailed 
upon  to  allow  the  war  to  be  attended  to  first.  The  consuls 
then  divided  their  respective  spheres  of  action.  Fabius  was 


174  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.459 

commissioned  to  march  the  legions  to  Antium:  to  Cornelius 
was  assigned  the  duty  of  keeping  guard  at  Rome,  lest  any  por- 
tion of  the  enemy's  troops,  as  was  the  practice  of  the  ^quans, 
should  advance  to  commit  depredations.  The  Hernicans  and 
Latins  were  ordered  to  supply  soldiers  in  accordance  with  the 
treaty ;  and  of  the  army  two  thirds  consisted  of  allies,  the  re- 
mainder of  Roman  citizens.  When  the  allies  arrived  on  the 
appointed  day,  the  consul  pitched  his  camp  outside  the  porta 
Capena.1  Then,  after  the  army  had  been  reviewed,  he  set  out 
for  Antium,.  and  encamped  not  far  from  the  town  and  fixed 
quarters  of  the  enemy.  There,  when  the  Volscians,  not  ven- 
turing to  risk  an  engagement,  because  the  contingent  from 
the  ^Equans  had  not  yet  arrived,  were  making  preparations  to 
see  how  they  might  protect  themselves  quietly  within  their 
ramparts,  on  the  following  day  Fabius  drew  up  not  one  mixed 
army  of  allies  and  citizens,  but  three  bodies  of  the  three  states 
separately  around  the  enemy's  works.  He  himself  occupied 
the  centre  with  the  Roman  legions.  He  ordered  them  to 
watch  for  the  signal  for  action,  so  that  at  the  same  time  both 
the  allies  might  begin  the  action  together,  and  retire  to- 
gether if  he  should  give  orders  to  sound  a  retreat.  He  also 
posted  the  proper  cavalry  of  each  division  behind  the  front 
line.  Having  thus  assailed  the  camp  at  three  different  points, 
he  surrounded  it :  and,  pressing  on  from  every  side,  he  dis- 
lodged the  Volscians,  who  were  unable  to  withstand  his  attack, 
from  the  rampart.  Having  then  crossed  the  fortifications,  he 
drove  out  from  the  camp  the  crowd  who  were  panic-strick- 
en and  inclining  to  make  for  one  direction.  Upon  this  the 
cavalry,  who  could  not  have  easily  passed  over  the  ram- 
part, having  stood  by  till  then  as  mere  spectators  of  the  fight, 
came  up  with  them  while  flying  in  disorder  over  the  open 
plain,  and  enjoyed  a  share  of  the  victory,  by  cutting  down 
the  affrighted  troops.  Great  was  the  slaughter  of  the  fugi- 
tives, both  in  the  camp  and  outside  the  lines ;  but  the  booty 
was  still  greater,  because  the  enemy  were  scarcely  able  to 
carry  off  their  arms  with  them;  and  the  entire  army  would 
have  been  destroyed,  had  not  the  woods  covered  them  in 
their  flight. 

While  these  events  were  taking  place  at  Antium,  the 
^Equans,  in  the  meanwhile,  sending  forward  the  flower  of  their 
youth,  surprised  the  citadel  of  Tusculum  by  night :  and  with 
the  rest  of  their  army  sat  down  at  no  great  distance  from  the 

1  This  gate,  from  which  at  a  later  date  the  Via  Appia  and  the  Via  La- 
tina  started,  stood  near  what  is  now  the  junction  of  the  Via  S.  Gregorio 
with  the  Vi  di  Porta  S.  Sebastiano.— D.  O. 


B.  c.  459]  RELIEF  OF  TUSCULUM  175 

walls  of  Tusculum,  so  as  to  divide  the  forces  of  the  enemy.1 
News  of  this  being  quickly  brought  to  Rome,  and  from  Rome 
to  the  camp  at  Antium,  affected  the  Romans  no  less  than  if  it 
had  been  announced  that  the  Capitol  was  taken ;  so  recent  was 
the  service  rendered  by  the  Tusculans,  and  the  very  similarity 
of  the  danger  seemed  to  demand  a  return  of  the  aid  that  had 
been  afforded.  Fabius,  giving  up  all  thought  of  everything 
else,  removed  the  booty  hastily  from  the  camp  to  Antium: 
and,  having  left  a  small  garrison  there,  hurried  on  his  army  by 
forced  marches  to  Tusculum.  The  soldiers  were  allowed  to 
take  with  them  nothing  but  their  arms,  and  whatever  baked 
provision  was  at  hand.  The  consul  Cornelius  sent  up  provi- 
sions from  Rome.  The  war  was  carried  on  at  Tusculum  for 
several  months.  With  one  part  of  his  army  the  consul  assailed 
the  camp  of  the  ^quans ;  he  had  given  part  to  the  Tusculans 
to  aid  in  the  recovery  of  their  citadel.  They  could  never  have 
made  their  way  up  to  it  by  force :  at  length  famine  caused  the 
enemy  to  withdraw  from  it.  When  matters  subsequently 
came  to  extremities,  they  were  all  sent  under  the  yoke,*  by  the 
Tusculans,  unarmed  and  naked.  While  returning  home  in 
ignominious  flight,  they  were  overtaken  by  the  Roman  con- 
sul at  Algidum,  and  cut  to  pieces  to  a  man.3  After  this  vic- 
tory, having  marched  back  his  army  to  Columen  (so  is  the 
place  named),  he  pitched  his  camp  there.  The  other  consul 
also,  as  soon  as  the  Roman  walls  ceased  to  be  in  danger,  now 
that  the  enemy  had  been  defeated,  set  out  from  Rome.  Thus 
the  consuls,  having  entered  the  territories  of  the  enemies  on 
two  different  sides,  in  eager  rivalry  plundered  the  territory  of 
the  Volscians  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the  ^Equans  on  the 
other.  I  find  it  stated  by  several  writers  that  the  people  of 
Antium  revolted  during  the  same  year.  That  Lucius  Corne- 
lius, the  consul,  conducted  that  war  and  took  the  town,  I 
would  not  venture  to  assert  it  for  certain,  because  no  mention 
is  made  of  the  matter  in  the  older  writers. 

This  war  being  concluded,  a  tribunician  war  at  home 
alarmed  the  senate.  The  tribunes  held  that  the  detention  of 
the  army  abroad  was  due  to  a  fraudulent  motive :  that  that  de- 

1  By  drawing  part  of  the  Roman  army  to  the  defence  of  the  allied 
city.— D.  O. 

*  Two  spears  were  set  upright  and  a  third  lashed  across.  To  pass 
through  and  under  this  "yoke"  was,  among  the  Italian  states,  the  great- 
est indignity  that  could  be  visited  upon  a  captured  army.  It  symbolized 
servitude  in  arms. — D.  O. 

1  This  would  seem  to  augur  some  treachery,  unless  we  are  to  believe 
that  only  the  young  men  taken  in  the  citadel  were  sent  under  the  yoke, 
while  the  slaughter  took  place  among  the  flying  besiegers. — D.  O. 


Ij6  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  459 

ception  was  intended  to  prevent  the  passing  of  the  law ;  that 
they,  however,  would  none  the  less  go  through  with  the  matter 
they  had  undertaken.  Publius  Lucretius,  however,  the  pre- 
fect of  the  city,  so  far  prevailed,  that  the  proceedings  of  the 
tribunes  were  postponed  till  the  arrival  of  the  consuls.  A  new 
cause  of  disturbance  had  also  arisen.  The  quaestors,1  Aulus 
Cornelius  and  Quintus  Servilius,  appointed  a  day  of  trial  for 
Marcus  Volscius,  because  he  had  come  forward  as  a  mani- 
festly false  witness  against  Caeso.  For  it  was  established  by 
many  proofs,  that  the  brother  of  Volscius,  from  the  time  he 
first  fell  ill,  had  not  only  never  been  seen  in  public,  but  that  he 
had  not  even  left  his  bed  after  he  had  been  attacked  by  illness, 
and  that  he  had  died  of  a  wasting  disease  of  several  months' 
standing;  and  that  at  the  time  to  which  the  witness  had  re- 
ferred the  commission  of  the  crime,  Caeso  had  not  been  seen 
at  Rome:  while  those  who  had  served  in  the  army  with  him 
positively  stated  that  at  that  time  he  had  regularly  attended  at 
his  post  along  with  them  without  any  leave  of  absence.  Many, 
on  their  own  account,  proposed  to  Volscius  to  refer  the  matter 
to  the  decision  of  an  arbitrator.  As  he  did  not  venture  to  go 
to  trial,  all  these  points  coinciding  rendered  the  condemnation 
of  Volscius  no  less  certain  than  that  of  Caeso  had  been  on  the 
testimony  of  Volscius.  The  tribunes  were  the  cause  of  delay, 
who  said  that  they  would  not  suffer  the  quaestors  to  hold  the 
assembly  concerning  the  accused,  unless  it  were  first  held  con- 
cerning the  law.  Thus  both  matters  were  spun  out  till  the 
arrival  of  the  consuls.  When  they  entered  the  city  in  triumph 
with  their  victorious  army,  because  nothing  was  said  about 
the  law,  many  thought  that  the  tribunes  were  struck  with  dis- 
may. But  they  in  reality  (for  it  was  now  the  close  of  the  year), 
being  eager  to  obtain  a  fourth  tribuneship,  had  turned  away 
their  efforts  from  the  law  to  the  discussion  of  the  elections; 
and  when  the  consuls,  with  the  object  of  lessening  their  dig- 
nity, opposed  the  continuation  of  their  tribuneship  with  no  less 
earnestness  than  if  the  law  in  question  had  been  proposed,  the 
victory  in  the  contest  was  on  the  side  of  the  tribunes. 

In  the  same  year  peace  was  granted  to  the  yEquans  on 
their  suing  for  it.  The  census,  begun  in  the  preceding  year, 
was  completed :  this  is  said  to  have  been  the  tenth  lustrum 
that  was  completed  from  the  date  of  the  foundation  of  the 
city.  The  number  of  citizens  rated  was  one  hundred  and 
seventeen  thousand  three  hundred  and  nineteen.  The  consuls 

1  "  Quaestors,"  these  officers  are  first  mentioned  in  Book  II,  ch.  xli : 
in  early  times  it  appears  to  have  been  part  of  their  duty  to  prosecute 
those  guilty  of  treason,  and  to  carry  the  punishment  into  execution. 


B.  C.  45«]          AMBASSADORS  TO  THE  jEQUANS  177 

obtained  great  glory  this  year  both  at  home  and  in  war,  be- 
cause they  established  peace  abroad,  while  at  home,  though 
the  state  was  not  in  a  condition  of  absolute  harmony,  yet  it 
was  less  harassed  by  dissensions  than  at  other  times. 

Lucius  Minucius  and  Gaius  Nautius  being  next  elected 
consuls,  took  up  the  two  causes  which  remained  undecided 
from  the  preceding  year.  As  before,  the  consuls  obstructed 
the  law,  the  tribunes  the  trial  of  Volsc'ius:  but  in  the  new 
quaestors  there  was  greater  power  and  greater  influence. 
With  Marcus  Valerius,  son  of  Manius  and  grandson  of  Vole- 
sus,  Titus  Quinctius  Capitolinus,  who  had  been  thrice  consul, 
was  appointed  quaestor.  Since  Caeso  could  neither  be  restored 
to  the  Quinctian  family,  nor  to  the  state,  though  a  most  prom- 
ising youth,  he,  justly,  and  as  in  duty  bound,  prosecuted  the 
false  witness  who  had  deprived  an  innocent  person  of  the 
power  of  pleading  his  cause.  When  Verginius,  more  than  any 
of  the  tribunes,  busied  himself  about  the  passing  of  the  law, 
the  space  of  two  months  was  allowed  the  consuls  to  examine 
into  the  law:  on  condition  that,  when  they  had  satisfied  the 
people  as  to  what  secret  designs  were  concealed  under  it,1  they 
should  then  allow  them  to  give  their  votes.  The  granting  of 
this  respite  established  tranquility  in  the  city.  The  yEquans, 
however,  did  not  allow  them  long  rest:  in  violation  of  the 
treaty  which  had  been  made  with  the  Romans  the  year  before, 
they  conferred  the  chief  command  on  Gracchus  Cloelius.  He 
was  then  by  far  the  chief  man  among  the  ^Equans.  Under 
the  command  of  Gracchus  they  advanced  with  hostile  depre- 
dations into  the  district  of  Labici,  from  thence  into  that  of 
Tusculum,  and,  laden  with  booty,  pitched  their  camp  at  Algi- 
dum.  To  that  camp  came  Quintus  Fabius,  Publius  Volum- 
nius,  Aulus  Postumius,  ambassadors  from  Rome,  to  com- 
plain of  the  wrongs  committed,  and  to  demand  restitution  in 
accordance  with  the  treaty.  The  general  of  the  ^Equans  com- 
manded them  to  deliver  to  the  oak  the  message  they  brought 
from  the  Roman  senate;  that  he  in  the  meantime  would  at- 
tend to  other  matters.  An  oak,  a  mighty  tree,  whose  shade 
formed  a  cool  resting-place,  overhung  the  general's  tent. 
Then  one  of  the  ambassadors,  when  departing,  cried  out: 
"  Let  both  this  consecrated  oak  and  all  the  gods  hear  that  the 
treaty  has  been  broken  by  you,  and  both  lend  a  favourable  ear 
to  our  complaints  now,  and  assist  our  arms  presently,  when  we 
shall  avenge  the  rights  of  gods  and  men  that  have  been  vio- 
lated simultaneously."  As  soon  as  the  ambassadors  returned 
to  Rome,  the  senate  ordered  one  of  the  consuls  to  lead  his 
1  Evidently  a  new  pretext  for  delay. — D,  Qt 


I7g  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.458 

army  into  Algidum  against  Gracchus,  to  the  other  they  as- 
signed as  his  sphere  of  action  the  devastation  of  the  country  of 
the  ^Equans.  The  tribunes,  after  their  usual  manner,  attempt- 
ed to  obstruct  the  levy,  and  probably  would  have  eventually 
succeeded  in  doing  so,  had  not  a  new  and  additional  cause  of 
alarm  suddenly  arisen. 

A  large  force  of  Sabines,  committing  dreadful  devastation, 
advanced  almost  up  to  the  walls  of  the  city.  The  fields  were 
laid  waste,  the  city  was  smitten  with  terror.  Then  the  com- 
mons cheerfully  took  up  arms ;  two  large  armies  were  raised, 
the  remonstrances  of  the  tribunes  being  of  no  avail.  Nautius 
led  one  against  the  Sabines,  and,  having  pitched  his  camp  at 
Eretum,1  by  trifling  incursions,  mostly  by  night,  he  so  deso- 
lated the  Sabine  territory  that,  in  comparison  with  it,  the  Ro- 
man borders  seemed  almost  undamaged  by  the  war.  Minu- 
cius  neither  had  the  same  good  fortune  nor  displayed  the  same 
energy  in  conducting  his  operations :  for  after  he  had  pitched 
his  camp  at  no  great  distance  from  the  enemy,  without  hav- 
ing experienced  any  reverse  of  importance,  he  kept  himself 
through  fear  within  the  camp.  When  the  enemy  perceived 
this,  their  boldness  increased,  as  usually  happens,  from  the 
fears  of  others ;  and,  having  attacked  his  camp  by  night,  when 
open  force  availed  little,  they  drew  lines  of  circumvallation 
around  it  on  the  following  day.  Before  these  could  close  the 
means  of  egress,  by  a  rampart  thrown  up  on  all  sides,  five 
horsemen,  despatched  between  the  enemies'  posts,  brought 
news  to  Rome,  that  the  consul  and  his  army  were  besieged. 
Nothing  could  have  happened  so  unexpected  nor  so  unlooked- 
for.  Accordingly,  the  panic  and  the  alarm  were  as  great  as  if 
the  enemy  were  besieging  the  city,  not  the  camp.  They  sum- 
moned the  consul  Nautius ;  and  when  there  seemed  to  be  but 
insufficient  protection  in  him,  and  it  was  determined  that  a  dic- 
tator should  be  appointed  to  retrieve  their  shattered  fortunes, 
Lucius  Quinctius  Cincinnatus  was  appointed  by  universal 
consent. 

It  is  worth  while  for  those  persons  who  despise  all  things 
human  in  comparison  with  riches,  and  who  suppose  that  there 
is  no  room  either  for  exalted  honour,  or  for  virtue,  except 
where  riches  abound  in  great  profusion,  to  listen  to  the  fol- 
lowing: Lucius  Quinctius,  the  sole  hope  of  the  empire  of 
the  Roman  people,  cultivated  a  farm  of  four  acres  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Tiber,  which  is  called  the  Quinctian  meadows, 
exactly  opposite  the  place  where  the  dock-yard  now  is. 
There,  whether  leaning  on  a  stake  while  digging  a  trench,  or 

1  A  little  beyond  Crustumerium,  on  the  Via  Salaria. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  458]  CINCINNATUS  179 

while  ploughing,  at  any  rate,  as  is  certain,  while  engaged  on 
some  work  in  the  fields,  after  mutual  exchange  of  salutations 
had  taken  place,  being  requested  by  the  ambassadors  to  put 
on  his  toga,  and  listen  to  the  commands  of  the  senate  (with 
wishes  that  it  might  turn  out  well  both  for  him  and  the  com- 
monwealth), he  was  astonished,  and,  asking  whether  all  was 
well,  bade  his  wife  Racilia  immediately  bring  his  toga  from 
the  hut.  As  soon  as  he  had  put  it  on  and  come  forward, 
after  having  first  wiped  off  the  dust  and  sweat,  the  ambassa- 
dors, congratulating  him,  united  in  saluting  him  as  dictator: 
they  summoned  him  into  the  city,  and  told  him  what  terror 
prevailed  in  the  army.  A  vessel  was  prepared  for  Quinctius 
by  order  of  the  government,  and  his  three  sons,  having  come 
out  to  meet  him,  received  him  on  landing  at  the  other  side; 
then  his  other  relatives  and  his  friends:  then  the  greater  part 
of  the  patricians.  Accompanied  by  this  numerous  attendance, 
the  lictors  going  before  him,  he  was  conducted  to  his  resi- 
dence.1 There  was  a  numerous  concourse  of  the  commons 
also:  but  they  by  no  means  looked  on  Quinctius  with  the 
same  satisfaction,  as  they  considered  both  that  he  was  vested 
with  excessive  authority,  and  was  likely  to  prove  still  more 
arbitrary  by  the  exercise  of  that  same  authority.  During  that 
night,  however,  nothing  was  done  except  that  guards  were 
posted  in  the  city. 

On  the  next  day  the  dictator,  having  entered  the  forum 
before  daylight,  appointed  as  his  master  of  the  horse  Lucius 
Tarquitius,  a  man  of  patrician  family,  but  who,  though  he  had 
served  his  campaigns  on  foot  by  reason  of  his  scanty  means, 
was  yet  considered  by  far  the  most  capable  in  military  mat- 
ters among  the  Roman  youth.  With  his  master  of  the  horse 
he  entered  the  assembly,  proclaimed  a  suspension  of  public 
business,  ordered  the  shops  to  be  closed  throughout  the  city, 
and  forbade  any  one  to  attend  to  any  private  affairs.  Then 
he  commanded  all  who  were  of  military  age  to  attend  under 
arms,  in  the  Campus  Martius,  before  sunset,  with  dressed 
provisions  for  five  days  and  twelve  stakes  apiece:  those  whose 
age  rendered  them  unfit  for  active  service  were  ordered  to 
prepare  victuals  for  the  soldiers  near  them,  while  the  latter 
were  getting  their  arms  ready,  and  procuring  stakes.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  young  men  ran  in  all  directions  to  procure 
the  stakes;  they  took  them  whatever  was  nearest  to  each: 
no  one  was  prevented  from  doing  so:  all  attended  readily 
according  to  the  dictator's  order.  Then,  the  troops  being 

1  Possibly  to  one  assigned  to  him  officially.     Freese  regards  the  ex- 
pression as  inconsistent  with  his  alleged  poverty. — D.  O. 


l8d  UVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.458 

drawn  up,  not  more  suitably  for  a  march  than  for  an  engage- 
ment, should  occasion  require  it,  the  dictator  himself  marched 
at  the  head  of  the  legions,  the  master  of  the  horse  at  the  head 
of  his  cavalry.  In  both  bodies  such  exhortations  were  deliv- 
ered as  circumstances  required:  that  they  should  quicken 
their  pace;  that  there  was  need  of  despatch,  that  they  rnight 
reach  the  enemy  by  night;  that  the  consul  and  the  Roman 
army  were  besieged;  that  they  had  now  been  shut  up  for 
three  days;  that  it  was  uncertain  what  each  day  or  night 
might  bring  with  it;  that  the  issues  of  the  most  important 
affairs  often  depended  on  a  moment  of  time.  The  soldiers, 
to  please  their  leaders,  exclaimed  among  themselves  :  "  Stand- 
ard-bearer, hasten ;  follow,  soldier."  At  midnight  they  reached 
Algidum:  and,  as  soon  as  they  perceived  that  they  were  near 
the  enemy,  they  halted. 

There  the  dictator,  riding  about,  and  having  observed, 
as  far  as  could  be  ascertained  by  night,  what  the  extent  of 
the  camp  was,  and  what  was  its  nature,  commanded  the  trib- 
unes of  the  soldiers  to  order  the  baggage  to  be  thrown  into 
one  place,  and  that  the  soldiers  with  their  arms  and  bundles 
of  stakes  should  return  to  their  ranks.  His  orders  were  exe- 
cuted. Then,  with  the  regularity  which  they  had  observed 
on  the  march,  he  drew  the  entire  army  in  a  long  column 
around  the  enemy's  camp,  and  directed  that,  when  the  signal 
was  given,  they  should  all  raise  a  shout,  and  that,  on  the  shout 
being  raised,  each  man  should  throw  up  a  trench  before  his 
post,  and  fix  his  palisade.  The  orders  being  issued,  the  signal 
followed:  the  soldiers  carried  out  their  instructions;  the  shout 
echoed  around  the  enemy:  it  then  passed  beyond  the  camp  of 
the  enemy,  and  reached  that  of  the  consul :  in  the  one  it  occa- 
sioned panic,  in  the  other  great  joy.  The  Romans,  observing 
to  each  other  with  exultation  that  this  was  the  shout  of  their 
countrymen,  and  that  aid  was  at  hand,  took  the  initiative, 
and  from  their  watch-guards  and  outposts  dismayed  the  ene- 
my. The  consul  declared  that  there  must  be  no  delay;  that 
by  that  shout  not  only  their  arrival  was  intimated,  but  that 
hostilities  were  already  begun  by  their  friends;  and  that  it 
would  be  a  wonder  if  the  enemy's  camp  were  not  attacked 
on  the  farther  side.  He  therefore  ordered  his  men  to  take 
up  arms  and  follow  him.  The  battle  was  begun  during 
the  night.  They  gave  notice  by  a  shout  to  the  dictator's 
legions  that  on  that  side  also  the  decisive  moment  had  ar- 
rived. The  vEquans  were  now  preparing  to  prevent  the  works 
from  being  drawn  around  them,  when,  the  battle  being  be- 
gun by  the  enemy  from  within,  having  turned  their  atten- 


B.  C.  458]  THE    >EQUANS   SUBDUED  l8l 

tion  from  those  employed  on  the  fortifications  to  those  who 
were  fighting  on  the  inside,  lest  a  sally  should  be  made 
through  the  centre  of  their  camp,  they  left  the  night  free  for 
the  completion  of  the  work,  and  continued  the  fight  with  the 
consul  till  daylight.  At  daybreak  they  were  now  encompassed 
by  the  dictator's  works,  and  were  scarcely  able  to  maintain 
the  fight  against  one  army.  Then  their  lines  were  attacked 
by  the  army  of  Quinctius,  which,  immediately  after  complet- 
ing its  work,  returned  to  arms.  Here  a  new  engagement 
pressed  on  them:  the  former  one  had  in  no  wise  slackened. 
Then,  as  the  danger  that  beset  them  on  both  sides  pressed 
them  hard,  turning  from  fighting  to  entreaties,  they  implored 
the  dictator  on  the  one  hand,  the  consul  on  the  other,  not  to 
make  the  victory  their  total  destruction,  and  to  suffer  them  to 
depart  without  arms.  They  were  ordered  by  the  consul  to 
apply  to  the  dictator:  he,  incensed  against  them,  added  dis- 
grace to  defeat.  He  gave  orders  that  Gracchus  Clcelius,  their 
general,  and  the  other  leaders  should  be  brought  to  him  in 
chains,  and  that  the  town  of  Corbio  should  be  evacuated;  he 
added  that  he  did  not  desire  the  lives  of  the  ^quans:  that 
they  were  at  liberty  to  depart;  but  that  a  confession  might 
at  last  be  wrung  from  them  that  their  nation  was  defeated 
and  subdued,  they  would  have  to  pass  under  the  yoke.  The 
yoke  was  formed  of  three  spears,  two  fixed  in  the  ground, 
and  one  tied  across  between  the  upper  ends  of  them.  Under 
this  yoke  the  dictator  sent  the  ^Equans. 

The  enemy's  camp,  which  was  full  of  all  their  belongings 
— for  he  had  sent  them  out  of  the  camp  half  naked — having 
been  taken,  he  distributed  all  the  booty  among  his  own  sol- 
diers only:  rebuking  the  consul's  army  and  the  consul  him- 
self, he  said :  "  Soldiers,  you  shall  not  enjoy  any  portion  of 
the  spoil  taken  from  that  enemy  to  whom  you  yourselves 
nearly  became  a  spoil:  and  you,  Lucius  Minucius,  until  you 
begin  to  assume  a  spirit  worthy  of  a  consul,  shall  command 
these  legions  only  as  lieutenant."  Minucius  accordingly  re- 
signed his  office  of  consul,  and  remained  with  the  army,  as 
he  had  been  commanded.  But  so  meekly  obedient  were  the 
minds  of  men  at  that  time  to  authority  combined  with  supe- 
rior merit,  that  this  army,  remembering  his  kindness,  rather 
than  their  own  disgrace,  both  voted  a  golden  crown  of  a 
pound  weight  to  the  dictator,  and  saluted  him  as  their  pre- 
server when  he  set  out.  The  senate  at  Rome,  convened  by 
Quintus  Fabius,  prefect  of  the  city,  ordered  Quinctius  to  enter 
the  city  in  triumph,  in  the  order  of  march  in  which  he  was 
coming.  The  leaders  of  the  enemy  were  led  before  his  car: 


LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.457 

the  military  standards  were  carried  before  him:  his  army  fol- 
lowed laden  with  spoil.  Banquets  are  said  to  have  been 
spread  before  the  houses  of  all,  and  the  soldiers,  partaking 
of  the  entertainment,  followed  the  chariot  with  the  triumphal 
hymn  and  the  usual  jests,1  after  the  manner  of  revellers.  On 
that  day  the  freedom  of  the  state  was  granted  to  Lucius 
Mamilius  of  Tusculum,  amid  universal  approbation.  The  dic- 
tator would  have  immediately  laid  down  his  office  had  not 
the  assembly  for  the  trial  of  Marcus  Volscius,  the  false  wit- 
ness, detained  him ;  the  fear  of  the  dictator  prevented  the  trib- 
unes from  obstructing  it.  Volscius  was  condemned  and  went 
into  exile  at  Lanuvium.  Quinctius  laid  down  his  dictator- 
ship on  the  sixteenth  day,  having  been  invested  with  it  for 
six  months.  During  those  days  the  consul  Nautius  engaged 
the  Sabines  at  Eretum  with  distinguished  success:  besides 
the  devastation  of  their  lands,  this  additional  blow  also  befell 
the  Sabines.  Fabius  was  sent  to  Algidum  as  successor  to 
Minucius.  Toward  the  end  of  the  year  the  tribunes  began 
to  agitate  concerning  the  law;  but,  because  two  armies  were 
away,  the  patricians  carried  their  point,  that  no  proposal 
should  be  made  before  the  people.  The  commons  succeeded 
in  electing  the  same  tribunes  for  the  fifth  time.  It  is  said  that 
wolves  seen  in  the  Capitol  were  driven  away  by  dogs,  and  that 
on  account  of  that  prodigy  the  Capitol  was  purified.  Such 
were  the  transactions  of  that  year. 

Quintus  Minucius  and  Gaius  Horatius  Pulvillus  were  the 
next  consuls.  At  the  beginning  of  this  year,  when  there 
was  peace  abroad,  the  same  tribunes  and  the  same  law  occa- 
sioned disturbances  at  home;  and  matters  would  have  pro- 
ceeded further — so  highly  were  men's  minds  inflamed — had 
not  news  been  brought,  as  if  for  the  very  purpose,  that  by  a 
night  attack  of  the  JEquans  the  garrison  at  Corbio  had  been 
cut  off.  The  consuls  convened  the  senate:  they  were  ordered 
to  raise  a  hasty  levy  and  to  lead  it  to  Algidum.  Then,  the 
struggle  about  the  law  being  abandoned,  a  new  dispute  arose 
regarding  the  levy.  The  consular  authority  was  on  the  point 
of  being  overpowered  by  tribunician  influence,  when  an  addi- 
tional cause  of  alarm  arose:  that  the  Sabine  army  had  made 
a  descent  upon  Roman  territory  to  commit  depredations,  and 
from  thence  was  advancing  toward  the  city.  This  fear  in- 
fluenced the  tribunes  to  allow  the  soldiers  to  be  enrolled,  not 
without  a  stipulation,  however,  that  since  they  themselves  had 
been  foiled  for  five  years,  and  as  the  present  college  was  but 

1  A  curious  feature  of  a  triumph  were  the  disrespectful  and  often  scur- 
rilous verses  chanted  by  the  soldiers  at  the  expense  of  their  general. — D.  O. 


U.C.  457-454]          TEN  TRIBUNES  ELECTED  183 

inadequate  protection  for  the  commons,  ten  tribunes  of  the 
people  should  henceforward  be  elected.  Necessity  extorted 
this  concession  from  the  patricians  :  they  only  exacted  this  pro- 
viso, that  they  should  not  hereafter  see  the  same  men  tribunes. 
The  election  for  the  tribunes  was  held  immediately,  lest  that 
measure  also,  like  others,  might  remain  unfulfilled  after  the  war. 
In  the  thirty-sixth  year  after  the  first  tribunes,  ten  were  elected, 
two  from  each  class ;  and  provision  was  made  that  they  should 
be  elected  in  this  manner  for  the  future.  The  levy  being 
then  held,  Minucius  marched  out  against  the  Sabines,  but 
found  no  enemy.  Horatius,  when  the  ^Equans,  having  put 
the  garrison  at  Corbio  to  the  sword,  had  taken  Ortona  also, 
fought  a  battle  at  Algidum,  in  which  he  slew  a  great  number 
of  the  enemy  and  drove  them  not  only  from  Algidum,  but 
from  Corbio  and  Ortona.  He  also  razed  Corbio  to  the  ground 
for  having  betrayed  the  garrison. 

Marcus  Valerius  and  Spurius  Verginius  were  next  elected 
consuls.  Quiet  prevailed  at  home  and  abroad.  The  people 
were  distressed  for  provisions  on  account  of  the  excessive 
rains.  A  law  was  proposed  to  make  Mount  Aventine  public 
property.1  The  same  tribunes  of  the  people  were  re-elected. 
In  the  following  year,  Titus  Romilius  and  Gaius  Veturius 
being  consuls,  they  strongly  recommended  the  law  in  all  their 
harangues,  declaring  that  they  were  ashamed  that  their  num- 
ber had  been  increased  to  no  purpose,  if  that  matter  should 
be  neglected  during  their  two  years  in  the  same  manner  as  it 
had  been  during  the  whole  preceding  five.  While  they  were 
most  busily  employed  in  these  matters,  an  alarming  message 
came  from  Tusculum,  that  the  ^quans  were  in  Tusculan  ter- 
ritory. The  recent  services  of  that  state  made  them  ashamed 
of  delaying  relief.  Both  the  consuls  were  sent  with  an  army, 
and  found  the  enemy  in  their  usual  post  in  Algidum.  There 
a  battle  was  fought:  upward  of  seven  thousand  of  the  enemy 
were  slain,  the  rest  were  put  to  flight :  immense  booty  was  ob- 
tained. This  the  consuls  sold  on  account  of  the  low  state 
of  the  treasury.  This  proceeding,  however,  brought  them 
into  odium  with  the  army,  and  also  afforded  the  tribunes  ma- 
terial for  bringing  a  charge  against  the  consuls  before  the 
commons.  Accordingly,  as  soon  as  they  went  out  of  office, 
in  the  consulship  of  Spurius  Tarpeius  and  Aulus  Aternius,  a 
day  of  trial  was  appointed  for  Romilius  by  Gaius  Calvius 
Cicero,  tribune  of  the  people ;  for  Veturius,  by  Lucius  Alienus, 
plebeian  aedile.  They  were  both  condemned,  to  the  great 

1  The  meaning  of  this  passage  is  obscure.  Many  explanations  have 
been  attempted,  none  of  which,  to  my  mind,  is  quite  satisfactory. — D.  O. 


184  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [8.0.454-452 

mortification  of  the  patricians:  Romilius  to  pay  ten  thousand 
asses,  Veturius  fifteen  thousand.  Nor  did  this  misfortune  of 
their  predecessors  render  the  new  consuls  more  timid.  They 
said  that  on  the  one  hand  they  might  be  condemned,  and  that 
on  the  other  the  commons  and  tribunes  could  not  carry  the 
law.  Then,  having  abandoned  the  law,  which,  by  being  re- 
peatedly brought  forward,  had  now  lost  consideration,  the 
tribunes  adopted  a  milder  method  of  proceeding  with  the 
patricians.  Let  them,  said  they,  at  length  put  an  end  to  dis- 
putes. If  laws  drawn  up  by  plebeians  displeased  them,  at 
least  let  them  allow  legislators  to  be  chosen  in  common,  both 
from  the  commons  and  from  the  patricians,  who  might  pro- 
pose measures  advantageous  to  both  parties,  and  such  as 
would  tend  to  the  establishment  of  liberty  on  principles  of 
equality.  The  patricians  did  not  disdain  to  accept  the  pro- 
posal. They  claimed  that  no  one  should  propose  laws,  except 
he  were  a  patrician.  When  they  agreed  with  respect  to  the 
laws,  and  differed  only  in  regard  to  the  proposer,  ambassadors 
were  sent  to  Athens,  Spurius  Postumius  Albus,  Aulus  Man- 
lius,  Publius  Sulpicius  Camerinus,  who  were  ordered  to  copy 
out  the  celebrated  laws  of  Solon,  and  to  make  themselves 
acquainted  with  the  institutions,  customs,  and  laws  of  the 
other  states  of  Greece. 

The  year  was  peaceful  as  regards  foreign  wars;  the  fol- 
lowing one,  when  Publius  Curiatius  and  Sextus  Quinctilius 
were  consuls,  was  still  more  quiet,  owing  to  the  tribunes  ob- 
serving uninterrupted  silence,  which  was  occasioned  in  the 
first  place  by  their  waiting  for  the  return  of  the  ambassadors 
who  had  gone  to  Athens,  and  for  the  account  of  the  foreign 
laws;  in  the  next  place,  two  grievous  calamities  arose  at  the 
same  time,  famine  and  pestilence,  destructive  to  man,  and 
equally  so  to  cattle.  The  lands  were  left  desolate;  the  city 
exhausted  by  a  constant  succession  of  deaths.  Many  illus- 
trious families  were  in  mourning.  The  Flamen  Quirinalis,1 
Servius  Cornelius,  died ;  also  the  augur,  Gaius  Horatius  Pul- 
villus;  in  his  place  the  augurs  elected  Gaius  Veturius,  and 
that  with  all  the  more  eagerness,  because  he  had  been  con- 
demned by  the  commons.  The  consul  Quinctilius  died,  and 
four  tribunes  of  the  people.  The  year  was  rendered  a  melan- 
choly one  by  these  manifold  disasters;  as  far  as  foreign  foes 
were  concerned  there  was  perfect  quiet.  Then  Gaius  Mene- 
nius  and  Publius  Sestius  Capitolinus  were  elected  consuls. 
Nor  in  that  year  was  there  any  foreign  war:  but  disturbances 
arose  at  home.  The  ambassadors  had  now  returned  with  the 
1  Priest  of  Quirinus. — D.  O. 


B.C.  452-451]  DECEMVIRS   APPOINTED  185 

Athenian  laws;  the  tribunes  therefore  insisted  the  more 
urgently  that  a  beginning  should  at  length  be  made  of  com- 
piling the  laws.  It  was  resolved  that  decemvirs  should  be 
elected  to  rule  without  appeal,  and  that  there  should  be  no  other 
magistrate  during  that  year.  There  was,  for  a  considerable 
time,  a  dispute  whether  plebeians  should  be  admitted  among 
them:  at  length  the  point  was  conceded  to  the  patricians,  pro- 
vided that  the  Icilian  law  regarding  the  Aventine  and  the 
other  devoting  laws  were  not  repealed. 

In  the  three  hundred  and  second  year  after  the  foundation 
of  Rome,  the  form  of  government  was  a  second  time  changed, 
the  supreme  power  being  transferred  from  consuls  to  decem- 
virs, as  it  had  passed  before  from  kings  to  consuls.  The 
change  was  less  remarkable,  because  not  of  long  duration; 
for  the  joyous  commencement  of  that  government  afterward 
ran  riot  through  excess.  On  that  account  the  sooner  did  the 
arrangement  fall  to  the  ground,  and  the  practice  was  revived, 
that  the  name  and  authority  of  consuls  should  be  committed 
to  two  persons.  The  decemvirs  appointed  were,  Appius 
Claudius,  Titus  Genucius,  Publius  Sestius,  Lucius  Veturius, 
Gaius  Julius,  Aulus  Manlius,  Publius  Sulpicius,  Publius  Curi- 
atius,  Titus  Romilius,  Spurius  Postumius.  On  Claudius  and 
Genucius,  because  they  had  been  consuls  elect  for  that  year, 
the  honour  was  conferred  in  compensation  for  the  honour  of 
the  consulate ;  and  on  Sestius,  one  of  the  consuls  of  the  former 
year,  because  he  had  proposed  the  plan  itself  to  the  senate 
against  the  will  of  his  colleague.  Next  to  these  were  con- 
sidered the  three  ambassadors  who  had  gone  to  Athens,  so 
that  the  honour  might  serve  at  once  as  a  recompense  for  so 
distant  an  embassy,  while  at  the  same  time  they  considered 
that  persons  acquainted  with  the  foreign  laws  would  be  of 
use  in  drawing  up  the  new  code  of  justice.  The  others 
made  up  the  number.  They  say  that  also  persons  advanced 
in  years  were  appointed  by  the  last  suffrages,  in  order  that 
they  might  oppose  with  less  warmth  the  opinions  of  others. 
The  direction  of  the  entire  government  rested  with  Appius 
through  the  favour  of  the  commons,  and  he  had  assumed  a 
demeanour  so  different  that,  from  being  a  severe  and  harsh 
persecutor  of  the  people,  he  became  suddenly  a  courter  of  the 
commons,  and  strove  to  catch  every  breath  of  popular  favour. 
They  administered  justice  to  the  people  individually  every 
tenth  day.  On  that  day  the  twelve  fasces  attended  the  admin- 
istrator of  justice;  one  officer  attended  each  of  his  nine  col- 
leagues, and  in  the  midst  of  the  singular  unanimity  that  ex- 
isted among  themselves — a  harmony  that  sometimes  proves 


186  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [3.0.451 

prejudicial  to  private  persons — the  strictest  equity  was  shown 
to  others.  In  proof  of  their  moderation  it  will  be  enough  to 
instance  a  single  case  as  an  example.  Though  they  had  been 
appointed  to  govern  without  appeal,  yet,  upon  a  dead  body  be- 
ing found  buried  in  the  house  of  Publius  Sestius,1  a  man  of  pa- 
trician rank,  and  produced  in  the  assembly,  Gaius  Julius,  a  de- 
cemvir, appointed  a  day  of  trial  for  Sestius,  in  a  matter  at  once 
clear  and  heinous,  and  appeared  before  the  people  as  prosecutor 
of  the  man  whose  lawful  judge  he  was  if  accused:  and  relin- 
quished his  right,2  so  that  he  might  add  what  had  been  taken 
from  the  power  of  the  office  to  the  liberty  of  the  people. 

While  highest  and  lowest  alike  obtained  from  them  this 
prompt  administration  of  justice,  undefined,  as  if  from  an 
oracle,  at  the  same  time  their  attention  was  devoted  to  the 
framing  of  laws;  and,  the  ten  tables  being  proposed  amid 
the  intense  expectation  of  all,  they  summoned  the  people  to 
an  assembly:  and  ordered  them  to  go  and  read  the  laws  that 
were  exhibited,3  and  Heaven  grant  it  might  prove  favourable," 
advantageous,  and  of  happy  result  to  the  commonwealth, 
themselves,  and  their  children.  That  they  had  equalized  the 
rights  of  all,  both  the  highest  and  the  lowest,  as  far  as  could 
be  devised  by  the  abilities  of  ten  men:  that  the  understanding 
and  counsels  of  a  greater  number  had  greater  weight;  let  them 
turn  over  in  their  minds  each  particular  among  themselves, 
discuss  it  in  conversation,  and  bring  forward  for  public  dis- 
cussion whatever  might  be  superfluous  or  defective  under 
each  particular:  that  the  Roman  people  should  have  such 
laws  only  as  the  general  consent  might  appear  not  so  much  to 
have  ratified  when  proposed  as  to  have  itself  proposed.  When 
they  seemed  sufficiently  corrected  in  accordance  with  public 
opinion  regarding  each  section  of  the  laws  as  it  was  published, 
the  laws  of  the  ten  tables  were  passed  at  the  assembly  voting 
by  centuries,  which,  even  at  the  present  time,  amid  the  im- 
mense heap  of  laws  crowded  one  upon  the  other,  still  remain 
the  source  of  all  public  and  private  jurisprudence.  A  rumour 
then  spread  that  two  tables  were  needed,  on  the  addition  of 
which  a  digest,  as  it  were,  of  the  whole  Roman  law  could  be 
completed.  The  desire  for  this  gave  rise,  as  the  day  of  election 
approached,  to  a  request  that  decemvirs  be  appointed  again. 
The  commons  by  this  time,  besides  that  they  detested  the 

1  The  law  forbade  burial  within  the  limits  of  the  city  except  in  certain 
cases. — D.  O. 

*  That  is,  relinquished  his  right  of  acting  as  judge  in  favour  of  the 
people  and  of  popular  trial. — D.  O. 

*  A  new  law  was  hung  up  in  the  Forum  for  public  perusal. — D.  O. 


B.  c.  451]  THE  TEN  TABLES  1 8; 

name  of  consuls  no  less  than  that  of  kings,  did  not  even  re- 
quire the  tribunician  aid,  as  the  decemvirs  in  turn  allowed  an 
appeal. 

But  when  the  assembly  for  the  election  of  decemvirs  was 
proclaimed  for  the  third  market-day,  the  flame  of  ambition 
burst  out  so  powerfully  that  even  the  first  men  of  the  state 
began  to  canvass  individuals — fearing,  I  suppose,  that  the 
possession  of  such  high  authority  might  become  accessible 
to  persons  not  sufficiently  worthy  if  the  post  were  left  unoc- 
cupied by  themselves — humbly  soliciting,  from  those  very 
commons  with  whom  they  had  often  contended,  an  honour 
which  had  been  opposed  by  them  with  all  their  might.  The 
fact  of  their  dignity  being  now  laid  aside  in  a  contest,  at  their 
time  of  life,  and  after  they  had  filled  such  high  official  po- 
sitions, stimulated  the  exertions  of  Appius  Claudius.  You 
would  not  have  known  whether  to  reckon  him  among  the 
decemvirs  or  the  candidates;  he  resembled  at  times  more 
closely  one  canvassing  for  office  than  one  invested  with  it;  he 
aspersed  the  nobles,  extolled  all  the  most  unimportant  and 
insignificant  candidates;  surrounded  by  the  Duellii  and  Icilii 
who  had  been  tribunes,  he  himself  bustled  about  the  forum, 
through  their  means  he  recommended  himself  to  the  com- 
mons; until  even  his  colleagues,  who  till  then  had  been  de- 
voted to  him  heart  and  soul,  turned  their  eyes  on  him,  won- 
dering what  he  was  about.  It  was  evident  to  them  that  there 
was  no  sincerity  in  it;  that  such  affability  amid  such  pride 
would  surely  prove  not  disinterested.  That  this  excessive  low- 
ering of  himself,  and  condescending  to  familiarity  with  pri- 
vate citizens,  was  characteristic  not  so  much  of  one  eager  to 
retire  from  office,  as  of  one  seeking  the  means  of  continuing 
that  office.  Not  daring  openly  to  oppose  his  wishes,  they  set 
about  mitigating  his  ardour  by  humouring  it.  They  by  com- 
mon consent  conferred  on  him,  as  being  the  youngest,  the 
office  of  presiding  at  the  elections.  This  was  an  artifice,  to 
prevent  his  appointing  himself;  which  no  one  ever  did,  ex- 
cept the  tribunes  of  the  people,  and  that  with  the  very  worst 
precedent.  He,  however,  declaring  that,  with  the  favour  of 
fortune,  he  would  preside  at  the  elections,  seized  upon  what 
should  have  been  an  obstacle  as  a  lucky  opportunity:  and 
having  succeeded  by  a  coalition  in  keeping  out  of  office 
the  two  Quinctii,  Capitolinus  and  Cincinnatus,  and  his  own 
uncle,  Gaius  Claudius,  a  man  most  steadfast  in  the  cause  of 
the  nobility,  and  other  citizens  of  equal  eminence,  he  secured 
the  appointment  as  decemvirs  of  men  by  no  means  their  equals 
in  distinction — himself  in  the  first  instance,  a  proceeding  which 


xS8  LiW's  ROMAN  HISTORY        [3.0.451-450 

honourable  men  disapproved  of  greatly,  as  no  one  believed 
that  he  would  have  ventured  to  do  it.  With  him  were  elected 
Marcus  Cornelius  Maluginensis,  Marcus  Sergius,  Lucius  Mi- 
nucius,  Quintus  Fabius  Vibulanus,  Quintus  Poetilius,  Titus 
Antonius  Merenda,  Caeso  Duilius,  Spurius  Oppius  Cornicen, 
Manius  Rabuleius. 

This  was  the  end  of  Appius's  playing  a  part  at  variance 
with  his  disposition.  Henceforward  he  began  to  live  accord- 
ing to  his  natural  character,  and  to  mould  to  his  own  temper 
his  new  colleagues  before  they  entered  upon  office.  They 
daily  held  meetings  in  private:  then,  instructed  in  their  un- 
ruly designs,  which  they  concocted  apart  from  others,  now 
no  longer  dissembling  their  arrogance,  difficult  of  access, 
captious  to  all  who  conversed  with  them,  they  protracted  the 
matter  until  the  ides  of  May.  The  ides  of  May  was  at  that 
time  the  usual  period  for  beginning  office.  Accordingly,  at 
the  attainment  of  their  magistracy,  they  rendered  the  first 
day  of  their  office  remarkable  by  threats  that  inspired  great 
terror.  For,  while  the  preceding  decemvirs  had  observed 
the  rule,  that  only  one  should  have  the  fasces,  and  that  this 
emblem  of  royalty  should  pass  to  all  in  rotation,  to  each 
in  his  turn,  lo!  on  a  sudden  they  all  came  forth,  each  with 
twelve  fasces.  One  hundred  and  twenty  lictors  filled  the  fo- 
rum, and  carried  before  them  the  axes  tied  up  with  the  fasces,1 
giving  the  explanation  that  it  was  of  no  consequence  that  the 
axe  should  be  taken  away,  since  they  had  been  appointed  with- 
out appeal.  There  appeared  to  be  ten  kings,  and  terrors  were 
multiplied  not  only  among  the  humblest  individuals,  but  even 
among  the  principal  men  of  the  patricians,  who  thought  that 
an  excuse  for  the  beginning  of  bloodshed  was  being  sought 
for :  so  that,  if  any  one  should  have  uttered  a  word  that 
hinted  at  liberty,  either  in  the  senate  or  in  a  meeting  of  the 
people,  the  rods  and  axes  would  also  instantly  be  brought 
forward,  for  the  purpose  of  intimidating  the  rest.  For,  be- 
sides that  there  was  no  protection  in  the  people,  as  the  right  of 
appeal  had  been  abolished,  they  had  also  by  mutual  consent 
prohibited  interference  with  each  other:  whereas  the  preced- 
ing decemvirs  had  allowed  the  decisions  pronounced  by  them- 
selves to  be  amended  by  appeal  to  any  one  of  their  colleagues, 
and  had  referred  to  the  people  some  points  which  seemed 
naturally  to  come  within  their  own  jurisdiction.  For  a  consid- 
erable time  the  terror  seemed  equally  distributed  among  all 
ranks;  gradually  it  began  to  be  directed  entirely  against  the 

1  As  in  the  case  of  a  dictator.     At  first  half,  and  finally  all,  of  the  con- 
sular lictors  carried  only  the  fasces. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  450]  THE   DECEMVIR  ATE  189 

commons.  While  they  spared  the  patricians)  arbitrary  and 
cruel  measures  were  taken  against  the  lower  classes.  As  being 
persons  with  whom  interest  usurped  the  force  of  justice,  they 
all  took  account  of  persons  rather  than  of  causes.  They  con- 
certed their  decisions  at  home,  and  pronounced  them  in  the 
forum.  If  any  one  appealed  to  a  colleague,  he  departed  from 
the  one  to  whom  he  had  appealed  in  such  a  manner  that  he  re- 
gretted that  he  had  not  abided  by  the  sentence  of  the  former. 
An  irresponsible  rumour  had  also  gone  abroad  that  they  had 
conspired  in  their  tyranny  not  only  for  the  present  time,  but 
that  a  clandestine  league  had  been  concluded  among  them  on 
oath,  that  they  would  not  hold  the  comitia,  but  by  perpetuating 
the  decemvirate  would  retain  supreme  power  now  that  it  had 
once  come  into  their  possession. 

The  plebeians  then  began  narrowly  to  watch  the  counte- 
nances of  the  patricians,  and  to  strive  to  catch  a  glimpse  of 
liberty  from  that  quarter,  by  apprehending  slavery  from  which 
they  had  brought  the  republic  into  its  present  condition.  The 
leading  members  of  the  senate  detested  the  decemvirs,  de- 
tested the  commons ;  they  neither  approved  of  what  was  go- 
ing on,  and  they  considered  that  what  befell  the  latter  was  not 
undeserved.  They  were  unwilling  to  assist  men  who,  by  rush- 
ing too  eagerly  toward  liberty,  had  fallen  into  slavery:  they 
even  heaped  injuries  on  them,  that,  from  disgust  at  the  present 
state  of  things,  two  consuls  and  the  former  constitution  might 
at  length  be  regretted.  By  this  time  the  greater  part  of  the 
year  had  passed,  and  two  tables  of  laws  had  been  added  to  the 
ten  tables  of  the  former  year ;  and  if  these  laws  also  had  been 
passed  in  the  assembly  of  the  centuries,  there  would  now  have 
remained  no  reason  why  the  republic  should  require  that  form 
of  government.  They  were  anxiously  waiting  to  see  how  long 
it  would  be  before  the  assembly  would  be  proclaimed  for  the 
election  of  consuls.  The  only  thing  that  troubled  the  com- 
mons was  by  what  means  they  should  re-establish  the  tribuni- 
cian  power,  that  bulwark  of  their  liberty,  now  so  long  dis- 
continued, no  mention  in  the  meantime  being  made  of  the 
elections.  Further,  the  decemvirs,  who  had  at  first  exhibited 
themselves  to  the  people  surrounded  by  men  of  tribunician 
rank,  because  that  was  deemed  popular,  now  guarded  them- 
selves by  bands  of  young  patricians  :  crowds  of  these  beset  the 
tribunals.  They  harried  the  commons,  and  plundered  their 
effects:  when  fortune  was  on  the  side  of  the  more  powerful 
individual,  in  regard  to  whatever  was  coveted.  And  now  they 
spared  not  even  their  persons:  some  were  beaten  with  rods, 
others  had  to  submit  to  the  axe ;  and,  that  such  cruelty  might 


I90  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.450-449 

not  go  unrewarded,  a  grant  of  his  effects  followed  the  punish- 
ment of  the  owner.  Corrupted  by  such  bribes,  the  young 
nobles  not  only  made  no  opposition  to  oppression,  but  openly 
avowed  a  preference  for  their  own  selfish  gratification  rather 
than  for  the  liberty  of  all. 

The  ides  of  May  came  round.  Without  any  magistrates 
being  elected  in  place  of  those  retiring,  private  persons  *  came 
forward  as  decemvirs,  without  any  abatement  either  in  their 
determination  to  enforce  their  authority,  or  any  alteration  in 
the  insignia  displayed  as  outward  signs  of  office.  That  indeed 
seemed  undoubted  regal  tyranny.  Liberty  was  now  deplored 
as  lost  forever :  no  champion  of  it  stood  forth,  or  seemed  likely 
to  do  so.  And  not  only  were  the  Romans  themselves  sunk  in 
despondency,  but  they  began  to  be  looked  down  upon  by  the 
neighbouring  states,  who  felt  indignant  that  sovereign  power 
should  be  in  the  hands  of  a  state  where  liberty  did  not  exist. 
The  Sabines  with  a  numerous  body  of  men  made  an  incursion 
into  Roman  territory ;  and  having  committed  extensive  devasta- 
tions, after  they  had  driven  off  with  impunity  booty  of  men  and 
cattle,  they  recalled  their  troops,  which  had  been  dispersed  in 
different  directions,  to  Eretum,  where  they  pitched  their  camp, 
grounding  their  hopes  on  the  dissensions  at  Rome,  which  they 
expected  would  prove  an  obstruction  to  the  levy.  Not  only 
the  couriers,  but  also  the  flight  of  the  country  people  through 
the  city  inspired  them  with  alarm.  The  decemvirs,  left  in  a 
dilemma  between  the  hatred  of  the  patricians  and  people,  took 
counsel  what  was  to  be  done.  Fortune,  moreover,  brought 
an  additional  cause  of  alarm.  The  ^quans  on  the  opposite 
side  pitched  their  camp  at  Algidum,  and  by  raids  from  thence 
ravaged  Tusculan  territory.  News  of  this  was  brought  by  am- 
bassadors from  Tusculum  imploring  assistance.  The  panic 
thereby  occasioned  urged  the  decemvirs  to  consult  the  senate, 
now  that  two  wars  at  once  threatened  the  city.  They  ordered 
the  patricians  to  be  summoned  into  the  senate-house,  well 
aware  what  a  storm  of  resentment  was  ready  to  break  upon 
them ;  they  felt  that  all  would  heap  upon  them  the  blame  for 
the  devastation  of  their  territory,  and  for  the  dangers  that 
threatened;  and  that  that  would  give  them  an  opportunity 
of  endeavouring  to  abolish  their  office,  if  they  did  not  unite 
in  resisting,  and  by  enforcing  their  authority  with  severity  on 
a  few  who  showed  an  intractable  spirit  repress  the  attempts 
of  others.  When  the  voice  of  the  crier  was  heard  in  the  forum 
summoning  the  senators  into  the  senate-house  to  the  presence 

1  That  is,  the  incumbents  of  the  past  year,  now  of  right  private  per- 
sons, their  term  of  office  having  expired. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  449]  THE  SENATE   CONVENED  191 

of  the  decemvirs,  this  proceeding,  as  altogether  new,  because 
they  had  long  since  given  up  the  custom  of  consulting  the  sen- 
ate, attracted  the  attention  of  the  people,  who,  full  of  surprise, 
wanted  to  know  what  had  happened,  and  why,  after  so  long 
an  interval,  they  were  reviving  a  custom  that  had  fallen  into 
abeyance:  stating  that  they  ought  to  thank  the  enemy  and  the 
war,  that  any  of  the  customs  of  a  free  state  were  complied  with. 
They  looked  around  for  a  senator  through  all  parts  of  the 
forum,  and  seldom  recognised  one  anywhere :  they  then  di- 
rected their  attention  to  the  senate-house,  and  to  the  solitude 
around  the  decemvirs,  who  both  themselves  judged  that  their 
power  was  universally  detested,  while  the  commons  were  of 
opinion  that  the  senators  refused  to  assemble  because  the  de- 
cemvirs, now  reduced  to  the  rank  of  private  citizens,  had  no 
authority  to  convene  them :  that  a  nucleus  was  now  formed  of 
those  who  would  help  them  to  recover  their  liberty,  if  the  com- 
mons would  but  side  with  the  senate,  and  if,  as  the  patricians, 
when  summoned,  refused  to  attend  the  senate,  so  also  the  com- 
mons would  refuse  to  enlist.  Thus  the  commons  grumbled. 
There  was  hardly  one  of  the  patricians  in  the  forum,  and  but 
very  few  in  the  city.  In  disgust  at  the  state  of  affairs,  they 
had  retired  into  the  country,  and  busied  themselves  only 
with  their  private  affairs,  giving  up  all  thought  of  state  con- 
cerns, considering  that  they  themselves  were  out  of  reach  of 
ill-treatment  in  proportion  as  they  removed  themselves  from 
the  meeting  and  converse  of  their  imperious  masters.  When 
those  who  had  been  summoned  did  not  assemble,  state  messen- 
gers were  despatched  to  their  houses,  both  to  levy  the  penal- 
ties,1 and  to  make  inquiries  whether  they  purposely  refused  to 
attend.  They  brought  back  word  that  the  senate  was  in  the 
country.  This  was  more  pleasing  to  the  decemvirs,  than  if 
they  brought  word  that  they  were  present  and  refused  obe- 
dience to  their  commands.  They  commanded  them  all  to  be 
summoned,  and  proclaimed  a  meeting  of  the  senate  for  the 
following  day,  which  assembled  in  much  greater  numbers  than 
they  themselves  had  expected.  By  this  proceeding  the  com- 
mons considered  that  their  liberty  was  betrayed  by  the  patri- 
cians, because  the  senate  had  obeyed  those  persons,  as  if  they 
had  a  right  to  compel  them,  who  had  already  gone  out  of 
office,  and  were  mere  private  individuals,  were  it  not  for  the 
violence  displayed  by  them. 

However,  they  showed  more  obedience  in  coming  into  the 
senate  than  obsequiousness  in  the  opinions  expressed  by  them, 
as  we  have  learned.  It  is  recorded  that,  after  Appius  Claudius 

1  The  fine  for  non-attendance. — D.  O. 


LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  449 

laid  the  subject  of  debate  before  the  meeting,  and  before  their 
opinions  were  asked  in  order,  Lucius  Valerius  Potitus  excited 
a  commotion,  by  demanding  permission  to  express  his  senti- 
ments concerning  the  state,  and — when  the  decemvirs  pre- 
vented him  with  threats  1 — by  declaring  that  he  would  present 
himself  before  the  people.  It  is  also  recorded  that  Marcus 
Horatius  Barbatus  entered  the  lists  with  no  less  boldness,  call- 
ing them  "  ten  Tarquins,"  and  reminding  them  that  under  the 
leadership  of  the  Valerii  and  Horatii  the  kings  had  been  ex- 
pelled. Nor  was  it  the  mere  name  that  men  were  then  dis- 
gusted with,  as  being  that  by  which  it  was  proper  that  Jupiter 
should  be  styled,  as  also  Romulus,  the  founder  of  the  city,  and 
the  succeeding  kings,  and  a  name  too  which  had  been  retained 
also  for  the  ceremonies  of  religion,2  as  a  solemn  one;  that  it 
was  the  tyranny  and  arrogance  of  a  king  they  then  detested : 
and  if  these  were  not  to  be  tolerated  in  that  same  king  or  the 
son  of  a  king,  who  would  tolerate  it  in  so  many  private  citi- 
zens ?  Let  them  beware  lest,  by  preventing  persons  from  ex- 
pressing their  sentiments  freely  in  the  senate,  they  obliged 
them  to  raise  their  voice  outside  the  senate-house.  Nor  could 
he  see  how  it  was  less  allowable  for  him,  a  private  citizen,  to 
summon  the  people  to  an  assembly,  than  for  them  to  convene 
the  senate.  They  might  try,  whenever  they  pleased,  how 
much  more  determined  a  sense  of  wrong  would  be  found  to 
be,  when  it  was  a  question  of  vindicating  one's  own  liberty, 
than  ambition,  when  the  object  was  to  preserve  an  unjust 
dominion.  That  they  proposed  the  question  concerning  the 
war  with  the  Sabines,  as  if  the  Roman  people  had  any  more  im- 
portant war  on  hand  than  that  against  those  who,  having  been 
elected  for  the  purpose  of  framing  laws,  had  left  no  law  in  the 
state;  who  had  abolished  elections,  annual  magistrates,  the 
regular  change  of  rulers,  which  was  the  only  means  of  equaliz- 
ing liberty;  who,  though  private  citizens,  still  possessed  the 
fasces  and  regal  dominion.  That  after  the  expulsion  of  the 
kings,  patrician  magistrates  had  been  appointed,  and  subse- 
quently, after  the  secession  of  the  people,  plebeian  magistrates. 
What  party  was  it,  he  asked,  to  which  they  belonged?  To 
the  popular  party?  What  had  they  ever  done  with  the  con- 
currence of  the  people?  To  the  party  of  the  nobles?  who  for 
now  nearly  an  entire  year  had  not  held  a  meeting  of  the  senate, 
and  then  held  one  in  such  a  manner  that  they  prevented  the 
expression  of  sentiments  regarding  the  commonwealth  ?  Let 

1  As  being  out  of  order,  the  senate  having  been  convened  to  consider 
the  war. 

*  Rex  Sacrificulus  (see  note,  page  73). — D.  O. 


B.C.  449]      FEELING  AGAINST  THE   DECEMVIRS  193 

them  not  place  too  much  hope  in  the  fears  of  others ;  the  griev- 
ances which  they  were  now  suffering  appeared  to  men  more 
oppressive  than  any  they  might  apprehend. 

While  Horatius  was  exclaiming  thus,  and  the  decemvirs 
could  not  discover  the  proper  bounds  either  of  their  anger  or 
forbearance,  nor  saw  how  the  matter  would  end,  Gaius  Clau- 
dius, who  was  uncle  of  Appius  the  decemvir,  delivered  an  ad- 
dress more  in  the  style  of  entreaty  than  reproach,  beseech- 
ing him  by  the  shade  of  his  brother  and  of  his  father,  that  he 
would  hold  in  recollection  the  civil  society  in  which  he  had 
been  born,  rather  than  the  confederacy  nefariously  entered 
into  with  his  colleagues,  adding  that  he  besought  this  much 
more  on  Appius's  own  account,  than  for  the  sake  of  the  com- 
monwealth. For  the  commonwealth  would  claim  its  rights  in 
spite  of  them,  if  it  could  not  obtain  them  with  their  consent : 
that,  however,  from  a  great  contest  great  animosities  were  gen- 
erally aroused :  it  was  the  result  of  the  latter  that  he  dreaded. 
Though  the  decemvirs  forbade  them  to  speak  on  any  subject 
save  that  which  they  had  submitted  to  them,  they  felt  too 
much  respect  for  Claudius  to  interrupt  him.  He  therefore  con- 
cluded the  expression  of  his  opinion  by  moving  that  it  was 
their  wish  that  no  decree  of  the  senate  should  be  passed.  And 
all  understood  the  matter  thus,  that  they  were  judged  by 
Claudius  to  be  private  citizens ; *  and  many  of  those  of  consu- 
lar standing  expressed  their  assent  in  words.  Another  meas- 
ure, more  severe  in  appearance,  which  ordered  the  patricians 
to  assemble  to  nominate  an  interrex,  in  reality  had  much  less 
force;  for  by  this  motion  the  mover  gave  expression  to  a  de- 
cided opinion  that  those  persons  were  magistrates  of  some 
kind  or  other  who  might  hold  a  meeting  of  the  senate,  while 
he  who  recommended  that  no  decree  of  the  senate  should  be 
passed,  had  thereby  declared  them  private  citizens.  When  the 
cause  of  the  decemvirs  was  now  failing,  Lucius  Cornelius  Ma- 
luginensis,  brother  of  Marcus  Cornelius  the  decemvir,  having 
been  purposely  reserved  from  among  those  of  consular  rank 
to  close  the  debate,  by  affecting  an  anxiety  about  the  war,  de- 
fended his  brother  and  his  colleagues  by  declaring  that  he  won- 
dered by  what  fatality  it  had  occurred,  that  those  who  had  been 
candidates  for  the  decemvirate,  either  these  or  their  friends,  had 
above  all  others  attacked  the  decemvirs:  or  why,  when  no  one 
had  disputed  for  so  many  months  while  the  state  was  free  from 
anxiety,  whether  legal  magistrates  were  at  the  head  of  affairs, 
they  now  at  length  sowed  the  seeds  of  civil  discord,  when  the 

1  As  having  been  improperly  convened. — D.  O. 
IS 


194  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [8.0.449 

enemy  were  nearly  at  the  gates,  except  it  were  that  in  a  state  of 
confusion  they  thought  that  their  object  would  be  less  clearly 
seen  through.  For  the  rest,  it  was  unfair  that  any  one  should 
prejudge  a  matter  of  such  importance,  while  their  minds  were 
occupied  with  a  more  momentous  concern.  It  was  his  opin- 
ion that,  in  regard  to  what  Valerius  and  Horatius  alleged — 
that  the  decemvirs  had  gone  out  of  office  before  the  ides  of 
May — the  matter  should  be  discussed  in  the  senate  and  left  to 
them  to  decide,  when  the  wars  which  were  now  impending 
were  over,  and  the  commonwealth  restored  to  tranquility : 
and  that  Appius  Claudius  was  even  now  preparing  to  take 
notice  that  an  account  had  to  be  rendered  by  him  of  the  elec- 
tion which  he  himself  as  decemvir  held  for  electing  decemvirs, 
whether  they  were  elected  for  one  year,  or  until  the  laws,  which 
were  wanting,  were  ratified.  It  was  his  opinion  that  all  other 
matters  should  be  disregarded  for  the  present,  except  the  war ; 
and  if  they  thought  that  the  reports  regarding  it  were  prop- 
agated without  foundation,  and  that  not  only  the  messen- 
gers but  also  the  ambassadors  of  the  Tusculans  had  stated 
what  was  false,  he  thought  that  scouts  should  be  despatched 
to  bring  back  more  certain  information ;  but  if  credit  were 
given  both  to  the  messengers  and  the  ambassadors,  that 
the  levy  should  be  held  at  the  very  earliest  opportunity; 
that  the  decemvirs  should  lead  the  armies,  whither  each 
thought  proper:  and  that  no  other  matter  should  take  pre- 
cedence. 

The  junior  patricians  almost  succeeded  in  getting  this  reso- 
lution passed  on  a  division.  Accordingly,  Valerius  and  Hora- 
tius, rising  again  with  greater  vehemence,  loudly  demanded 
that  it  should  be  allowed  them  to  express  their  sentiments 
concerning  the  republic;  that  they  would  address  a  meeting 
of  the  people,  if  owing  to  party  efforts  they  were  not  allowed  to 
do  so  in  the  senate:  for  that  private  individuals,  whether  in 
the  senate  or  in  a  general  assembly,  could  not  prevent  them : 
nor  would  they  yield  to  their  imaginary  fasces.  Appius,  now 
considering  that  the  crisis  was  already  nigh  at  hand,  when 
their  authority  would  be  overpowered,  unless  the  violence  of 
these  were  resisted  with  equal  boldness,  said,  "  It  will  be  better 
for  you  not  to  utter  a  word  on  any  subject,  except  the  subject 
of  discussion  " ;  and  against  Valerius,  when  he  refused  to  be  si- 
lent for  a  private  individual,  he  commanded  a  lictor  to  pro- 
ceed. When  Valerius,  from  the  threshold  of  the  senate-house, 
now  craved  the  protection  of  the  citizens,  Lucius  Cornelius, 
embracing  Appius,  put  an  end  to  the  struggle,  not  in  reality 
consulting  the  interest  of  him  whose  interest  he  pretended  to 


B.  C.  449]  THE   LEVY  HELD  195 

consult ;  *  and,  after  permission  to  say  what  he  pleased  had  been 
obtained  for  Valerius  by  means  of  Cornelius,  when  this  liberty 
did  not  extend  beyond  words,  the  decemvirs  attained  their  ob- 
ject. The  men  of  consular  rank  also  and  senior  members, 
from  the  hatred  of  tribunician  power  still  rankling  in  their  bo- 
soms, the  longing  for  which  they  considered  was  much  more 
keenly  felt  by  the  commons  than  for  the  consular  power,  al- 
most preferred  that  the  decemvirs  themselves  should  volun- 
tarily resign  their  office  at  some  future  period,  than  that  the 
people  should  once  more  become  prominent  through  hatred 
against  these.  If  the  matter,  quietly  conducted,  should  again 
return  to  the  consuls  without  popular  turbulence,  that  the 
commons  might  be  induced  to  forget  their  tribunes,  either  by 
the  intervention  of  wars  or  by  the  moderation  of  the  consuls 
in  exercising  their  authority. 

A  levy  was  proclaimed  without  objection  on  the  part  of  the 
patricians ;  the  young  men  answered  to  their  names,  as  the 
government  was  without  appeal.  The  legions  having  been 
enrolled,  the  decemvirs  proceeded  to  arrange  among  them- 
selves who  should  set  out  to  the  war,  who  should  command 
the  armies.  The  leading  men  among  the  decemvirs  were 
Quintus  Fabius  and  Appius  Claudius.  The  war  at  home  ap- 
peared more  serious  than  abroad.  The  decemvirs  considered 
the  violence  of  Appius  better  suited  to  suppress  commotions  in 
the  city;  that  Fabius  possessed  a  disposition  rather  lacking 
in  firmness  in  a  good  purpose  than  energetic  in  a  bad  one. 
For  this  man,  formerly  distinguished  at  home  and  abroad,  had 
been  so  altered  by  his  office  of  decemvir  and  the  influence  of 
his  colleagues,  that  he  chose  rather  to  be  like  Appius  than  like 
himself.  To  him  the  war  among  the  Sabines  was  intrusted, 
Manius*  Rabuleius  and  Quintus  Psetilius  being  sent  with  him 
as  colleagues.  Marcus  Cornelius  was  sent  to  Algidum  with 
Lucius  Minucius,  Titus  Antonius,  Cseso  Duillius,  and  Marcus 
Sergius  :  they  appointed  Spurius  Oppius  to  assist  Appius 
Claudius  in  protecting  the  city,  while  all  the  decemvirs  were 
to  enjoy  equal  authority. 

The  republic  was  managed  with  no  better  success  in  war 
than  at  home.  In  this  the  only  fault  in  the  generals  was,  that 
they  had  rendered  themselves  objects  of  hatred  to  their  fellow- 
citizens  :  in  other  respects  the  entire  blame  lay  with  the  sol- 
diers, who,  lest  any  enterprise  should  be  successfully  conducted 
under  the  leadership  and  auspices  of  the  decemvirs,  suffered 
themselves  to  be  beaten,  to  their  own  disgrace  and  that  of  their 

1  That  is,  of  Valerius,  but  rather  of  Appius  himself  in  restraining  him 
from  precipitating  matters. — D.  O. 


I96  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.449 

generals.  Their  armies  were  routed  both  by  the  Sabines  at 
Eretum,  and  by  the  ^Equans  in  Algidum.  Fleeing  from  Ere- 
tum  during  the  silence  of  the  night,  they  fortified  their  camp 
nearer  the  city,  on  an  elevated  position  between  Fidenae  and 
Crustumeria;  nowhere  encountering  on  equal  ground  the  ene- 
my who  pursued  them,  they  protected  themselves  by  the  nature 
of  the  ground  and  a  rampart,  not  by  valour  or  arms.  Their 
conduct  was  more  disgraceful,  and  greater  loss  also  was  sus- 
tained in  Algidum;  their  camp  too  was  lost,  and  the  soldiers, 
stripped  of  all  their  arms,  munitions,  and  supplies,  betook  them- 
selves to  Tusculum,  determined  to  procure  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence from  the  good  faith  and  compassion  of  their  hosts ;  and 
in  these,  notwithstanding  their  conduct,  they  were  not  disap- 
pointed. Such  alarming  accounts  were  brought  to  Rome,  that 
the  patricians,  having  now  laid  aside  their  hatred  of  the  decem- 
virs, passed  an  order  that  watches  should  be  held  in  the  city, 
and  commanded  that  all  who  were  not  hindered  by  reason  of 
their  age  from  carrying  arms,  should  mount  guard  on  the  walls, 
and  form  outposts  before  the  gates ;  they  also  voted  that  arms 
should  be  sent  to  Tusculum,  besides  a  re-enforcement ;  and  that 
the  decemvirs  should  come  down  from  the  citadel  of  Tusculum 
and  keep  their  troops  encamped ;  that  the  other  camp  should 
be  removed  from  Fidenae  into  Sabine  territory,  and  the  enemy, 
by  their  thus  attacking  them  first,  should  be  deterred  from  en- 
tertaining any  idea  of  assaulting  the  city. 

In  addition  to  the  reverses  sustained  at  the  hands  of  the 
enemy,  the  decemvirs  were  guilty  of  two  monstrous  deeds, 
one  abroad,  and  the  other  in  the  city.  They  sent  Lucius  Sic- 
cius,  who  was  quartered  among  the  Sabines,  to  take  osberva- 
tions  for  the  purpose  of  selecting  a  site  for  a  camp  :  he,  availing 
himself  of  the  unpopularity  of  the  decemvirs,  was  intrdducing, 
in  his  secret  conversations  with  the  common  soldiers,  sugges- 
tions of  a  secession  and  the  election  of  tribunes:  the  soldiers, 
whom  they  had  sent  to  accompany  him  in  that  expedition, 
were  commissioned  to  attack  him  in  a  convenient  place  and 
slay  him.  They  did  not  kill  him  with  impunity ;  several  of  the 
assassins  fell  around  him,  as  he  offered  resistance,  since,  pos- 
sessing great  personal  strength  and  displaying  courage  equal 
to  that  strength,  he  defended  himself  against  them,  although 
surrounded.  The  rest  brought  news  into  the  camp  that  Sic- 
cius,  while  fighting  bravely,  had  fallen  into  an  ambush,  and 
that  some  soldiers  had  been  lost  with  him.  At  first  the 
account  was  believed ;  afterward  a  party  of  men,  who  went  by 
permission  of  the  decemvirs  to  bury  those  who  had  fallen, 
when  they  observed  that  none  of  the  bodies  there  were 


6.  c.  449]  MURDER  OF  SICCIUS  .  197 

stripped,  and  that  Siccius  lay  in  the  midst  fully  armed,  and  that 
all  the  bodies  were  turned  toward  him,  while  there  was  neither 
the  body  of  any  of  the  enemy,  nor  any  traces  of  their  departure, 
brought  back  his  body,  saying  that  he  had  assuredly  been  slain 
by  his  own  men.  The  camp  was  now  filled  with  indignation, 
and  it  was  resolved  that  Siccius  should  be  forthwith  brought 
to  Rome,  had  not  the  decemvirs  hastened  to  bury  him  with 
military  honours  at  the  public  expense.  He  was  buried  amid 
the  great  grief  of  the  soldiery,  and  with  the  worst  possible 
infamy  of  the  decemvirs  among  the  common  people. 

Another  monstrous  deed  followed  in  the  city,  originating 
in  lust,  and  attended  by  results  not  less  tragical  than  that  deed 
which  had  brought  about  the  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins  from 
the  city  and  the  throne  through  the  violation  and  death  of 
Lucretia:  so  that  the  decemvirs  not  only  came  to  the  same 
end  as  the  kings,  but  the  reason  also  of  their  losing  their  power 
was  the  same.  Appius  Claudius  was  seized  with  a  criminal 
passion  for  violating  the  person  of  a  young  woman  of  plebeian 
rank.  Lucius  Verginius,  the  girl's  father,  held  an  honourable 
rank  among  the  centurions  at  Algidum,  a  man  who  was  a  pat- 
tern of  uprightness  both  at  home  and  in  the  service.  His  wife 
and  children  were  brought  up  in  the  same  manner.  He 
had  betrothed  his  daughter  to  Lucius  Icilius,  who  had  been 
tribune,  a  man  of  spirit  and  of  approved  zeal  in  the  interest  of 
the  people.  Appius,  burning  with  desire,  attempted  to  seduce 
by  bribes  and  promises  this  young  woman,  now  grown  up,  and 
of  distinguished  beauty;  and  when  he  perceived  that  all  the 
avenues  of  his  lust  were  barred  by  modesty,  he  turned  his 
thoughts  to  cruel  and  tyrannical  violence.  Considering  that,  as 
the  girl's  father  was  absent,  there  was  an  opportunity  for  com- 
mitting the  wrong,  he  instructed  a  dependent  of  his,  Marcus 
Claudius,  to  claim  the  girl  as  his  slave,  and  not  to  yield  to  those 
who  demanded  her  enjoyment  of  liberty  pending  judgment. 
The  tool  of  the  decemvir's  lust  laid  hands  on  the  girl  as  she 
was  coming  into  the  forum — for  there  the  elementary  schools 
were  held  in  booths — calling  her  the  daughter  of  his  slave 
and  a  slave  herself,  and  commanded  her  to  follow  him,  declaring 
that  he  would  drag  her  off  by  force  if  she  demurred.  The  girl 
being  struck  dumb  with  terror,  a  crowd  collected  at  the  cries  of 
her  nurse,  who  besought  the  protection  of  the  citizens.  The 
popular  names  of  her  father,  Verginius,  and  of  her  betrothed, 
Icilius,  were  in  every  one's  mouth.  Esteem  for  them  gained 
the  good-will  of  their  acquaintances,  the  heinousness  of  the  pro- 
ceeding, that  of  the  crowd.  She  was  now  safe  from  violence, 
forasmuch  as  the  claimant  said  that  there  was  no  occasion  for 


198  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [8.0.449 

rousing  the  mob ;  that  he  was  proceeding  by  law,  not  by  force. 
He  summoned  the  girl  into  court.  Her  supporters  advising  her 
to  follow  him,  they  reached  the  tribunal  of  Appius.  The 
claimant  rehearsed  the  farce  well  known  to  the  judge,  as  being 
in  presence  of  the  actual  author  of  the  plot,  that  the  girl,  born 
in  his  house,  and  clandestinely  transferred  from  thence  to  the 
house  of  Verginius,  had  been  fathered  on  the  latter :  that  what 
he  stated  was  established  by  certain  evidence,  and  that  he 
would  prove  it,  even  if  Verginius  himself,  who  would  be  the 
principal  sufferer,  were  judge :  that  meanwhile  it  was  only  fair 
the  servant  should  accompany  her  master.  The  supporters 
of  Verginia,  after  they  had  urged  that  Verginius  was  absent 
on  business  of  the  state,  that  he  would  be  present  in  two  days 
if  word  were  sent  to  him,  and  that  it  was  unfair  that  in  his 
absence  he  should  run  any  risk  regarding  his  children,  de- 
manded that  Appius  should  adjourn  the  whole  matter  till  the 
arrival  of  the  father;  that  he  should  allow  the  claim  for  her 
liberty  pending  judgment  according  to  the  law  passed  by  him- 
self, and  not  allow  a  maiden  of  ripe  age  to  encounter  the  risk 
of  her  reputation  before  that  of  her  liberty. 

Appius  prefaced  his  decision  by  observing  that  the  very 
same  law,  which  the  friends  of  Verginius  put  forward  as  the 
plea  of  their  demand,  showed  how  strongly  he  himself  was  in 
favour  of  liberty :  that  liberty,  however,  would  find  secure  pro- 
tection in  the  law  on  this  condition  only,  that  it  varied  neither 
with  respect  to  cases  or  persons.  For  with  respect  to  those  in- 
dividuals who  were  claimed  as  free,  that  point  of  law  was  good, 
because  any  citizen  could  proceed  by  law  in  such  a  matter: 
but  in  the  case  of  her  who  was  in  the  hands  of  her  father,  there 
was  no  other  person  in  whose  favour  her  master  need  relin- 
quish his  right  of  possession.1  That  it  was  his  decision,  there- 
fore, that  her  father  should  be  sent  for :  that,  in  the  meantime, 
the  claimant  should  not  be  deprived  of  the  right,  which  allowed 
him  to  carry  off  the  girl  with  him,  at  the  same  time  promising 
that  she  should  be  produced  on  the  arrival  of  him  who  was 
called  her  father.  When  there  were  many  who  murmured 
against  the  injustice  of  this  decision  rather  than  any  one  indi- 
vidual who  ventured  to  protest  against  it,  the  girl's  great-uncle, 
Publius  Numitorius,  and  her  betrothed,  Icilius,  appeared  on  the 

1  Appius's  argument  is  that,  if  Verginia  was  living  in  a  state  of  slavery 
under  Claudius,  as  any  one  might  institute  an  action  to  establish  her 
liberty,  she  would  be  entitled  to  her  liberty  until  the  matter  was  settled  : 
but  as  she  was  now  living  under  her  father's  protection,  and  was  his  prop- 
erty by  the  right  of  the  patria  potestas,  and  he  was  absent,  and  as  no 
other  person  had  a  right  to  keep  or  defend  her,  she  ought  to  be  given  up 
to  the  man  who  claimed  to  be  her  master,  pending  her  father's  return. 


B.  C.  449]  THE   STORY   OF   VERGINIA  199 

scene:  and,  way  being  made  for  them  through  the  crowd,  the 
multitude  thinking  that  Appius  could  be  most  effectually  re- 
sisted by  the  intervention  of  Icilius,  the  lictor  declared  that  he 
had  decided  the  matter,  and  attempted  to  remove  Icilius,  when 
he  began  to  raise  his  voice.  Such  a  monstrous  injustice  would 
have  fired  even  a  cool  temper.  "  By  the  sword,  Appius,"  said 
he,  "  must  I  be  removed  hence,  that  you  may  secure  silence 
about  that  which  you  wish  to  be  concealed.  This  young  wom- 
an I  am  about  to  marry,  to  have  and  to  hold  as  my  lawful  wife. 
Wherefore  call  together  all  the  lictors  of  your  colleagues  also ; 
order  the  rods  and  axes  to  be  got  ready :  the  betrothed  wife 
of  Icilius  shall  not  pass  the  night  outside  her  father's  house. 
No :  though  you  have  taken  from  us  the  aid  of  our  tribunes, 
and  the  power  of  appeal  to  the  commons  of  Rome,  the  two  bul- 
warks for  the  maintenance  of  our  liberty,  absolute  authority 
has  not  therefore  been  given  to  your  lust  over  our  wives  and 
children.  Vent  your  fury  on  our  backs  and  necks ;  let  chas- 
tity at  least  be  secure.  If  violence  shall  be  offered  to  her,  I 
shall  implore  the  protection  of  the  citizens  here  present  on  be- 
half of  my  betrothed,  Verginius  that  of  the  soldiers  on  behalf 
of  his  only  daughter,  all  of  us  the  protection  of  gods  and  men, 
nor  shall  you  carry  that  sentence  into  effect  without  our  blood. 
I  demand  of  you,  Appius,  consider  again  and  again  to  what 
lengths  you  are  proceeding.  Verginius,  when  he  comes,  will 
see  to  it,  what  conduct  he  is  to  pursue  with  respect  to  his 
daughter:  only  let  him  be  assured  of  this,  that  if  he  yield  to 
the  claims  of  this  man,  he  will  have  to  look  out  for  another 
match  for  his  daughter.  As  for  my  part,  in  vindicating  the 
liberty  of  my  spouse,  life  shall  leave  me  sooner  than  honour." 

The  multitude  was  now  roused,  and  a  contest  seemed 
threatening.  The  lictors  had  taken  their  stand  around  Icilius ; 
they  did  not,  however,  proceed  beyond  threats,  while  Appius 
said,  that  it  was  not  Verginia  who  was  being  defended  by 
Icilius,  but  that,  being  a  restless  man,  and  even  now  breathing 
the  spirit  of  the  tribuneship,  he  was  seeking  an  opportunity 
for  creating  a  disturbance.  That  he  would  not  afford  him  the 
chance  of  doing  so  on  that  day;  but  in  order  that  he  might 
now  know  that  the  concession  had  been  made  not  to  his  petu- 
lance, but  to  the  absent  Verginius,  to  the  name  of  father  and  to 
liberty,  that  he  would  not  decide  the  case  on  that  day,  nor  in- 
troduce a  decree :  that  he  would  request  Marcus  Claudius  to 
forego  somewhat  of  his  right,  and  to  suffer  the  girl  to  be  bailed 
till  the  next  day.  However,  unless  the  father  attended  on 
the  following  day,  he  gave  notice  to  Icilius  and  to  men  like 
Icilius,  that,  as  the  framer  of  it,  he  would  maintain  his  own  law, 


200  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  449 

as  a  decemvir,  his  firmness:  that  he  would  certainly  not  as- 
semble the  lictors  of  his  colleagues  to  put  down  the  promoters 
of  sedition;  that  he  would  be  content  with  his  own.  When 
the  time  of  this  act  of  injustice  had  been  deferred,  and  the 
friends  of  the  maiden  had  retired,  it  was  first  of  all  determined 
that  the  brother  of  Icilius,  and  the  son  of  Numitorius,  both 
active  young  men,  should  proceed  thence  straight  to  the  city 
gate,  and  that  Verginius  should  be  summoned  from  the  camp 
with  all  possible  haste :  that  the  safety  of  the  girl  depended  on 
his  being  present  next  day  at  the  proper  time,  to  protect  her 
from  wrong.  They  proceeded  according  to  directions,  and 
galloping  at  full  speed,  carried  the  news  to  her  father.  When 
the  claimant  of  the  maiden  was  pressing  Icilius  to  lay  claim  to 
her,  and  give  bail  for  her  appearance,  and  Icilius  said  that  that 
was  the  very  thing  that  was  being  done,  purposely  wasting  the 
time,  until  the  messengers  sent  to  the  camp  should  finish  their 
journey,  the  multitude  raised  their  hands  on  all  sides,  and 
every  one  showed  himself  ready  to  go  surety  for  Icilius.  And 
he,  with  his  eyes  full  of  tears,  said :  "  This  is  a  great  favour ; 
to-morrow  I  will  avail  myself  of  your  assistance :  at  present  I 
have  sufficient  sureties."  Thus  Verginia  was  bailed  on  the 
security  of  her  relations.  Appius,  having  delayed  a  short 
time,  that  he  might  not  appear  to  have  sat  on  account  of  that 
case  alone,  when  no  one  made  application  to  him,  all  other 
concerns  being  set  aside  owing  to  the  interest  displayed  in 
this  one  case,  betook  himself  home,  and  wrote  to  his  colleague 
in  the  camp,  not  to  grant  leave  of  absence  to  Verginius,  and 
even  to  keep  him  in  confinement.  This  wicked  scheme  was 
too  late,  as  it  deserved :  for  Verginius,  having  already  ob- 
tained his  leave,  had  set  out  at  the  first  watch,  while  the  letter 
regarding  his  detention  was  delivered  on  the  following  morn- 
ing without  effect. 

But  in  the  city,  at  daybreak,  when  the  citizens  were  stand- 
ing in  the  forum  on  the  tiptoe  of  expectation,  Verginius,  clad 
in  mourning,  conducted  his  daughter,  also  shabbily  attired,  at- 
tended by  some  matrons,  into  the  forum,  with  a  considerable 
body  of  supporters.  He  there  began  to  go  around  and  solicit 
people :  and  not  only  entreated  their  aid  given  out  of  kindness, 
but  demanded  it  as  a  right :  saying  that  he  stood  daily  in  the 
field  of  battle  in  defence  of  their  wives  and  children,  nor  was 
there  any  other  man,  whose  brave  and  intrepid  deeds  in  war 
could  be  recorded  in  greater  numbers.  What  availed  it,  if, 
while  the  city  was  secure  from  dangers,  their  children  had  to 
endure  these  calamities,  which  were  the  worst  that  could  be 
dreaded  if  it  were  taken?  Uttering  these  words  just  like  one 


B.C.  449]  THE   STORY   OF  VERGINIA  201 

delivering  a  public  harangue,  he  solicited  the  people  individ- 
ually. Similar  arguments  were  put  forward  by  Icilius :  the  at- 
tendant throng  of  women  produced  more  effect  by  their  silent 
tears  than  any  words.  With  a  mind  stubbornly  proof  against 
all  this — such  an  attack  of  frenzy,  rather  than  of  love,  had  per- 
verted his  mind — Appius  ascended  the  tribunal,  and  when  the 
claimant  went  on  to  complain  briefly,  that  justice  had  not  been 
administered  to  him  on  the  preceding  day  through  party  in- 
fluence, before  either  he  could  go  through  with  his  claim,  or 
an  opportunity  of  reply  was  afforded  to  Verginius,  Appius  in- 
terrupted him.  The  preamble  with  which  he  prefaced  his  de- 
cision, ancient  authors  may  have  handed  down  perhaps  with 
some  degree  of  truth ;  but  since  I  nowhere  find  any  that  is 
probable  in  the  case  of  so  scandalous  a  decision,  I  think  it  best 
to  state  the  bare  fact,  which  is  generally  admitted,  that  he 
passed  a  sentence  consigning  her  to  slavery.  At  first  a  feeling 
of  bewilderment  astounded  all,  caused  by  amazement  at  so 
heinous  a  proceeding:  then  for  some  time  silence  prevailed. 
Then,  when  Marcus  Claudius  proceeded  to  seize  the  maiden, 
while  the  matrons  stood  around,  and  was  met  by  the  piteous 
lamentations  of  the  women,  Verginius,  menacingly  stretching 
forth  his  hands  toward  Appius,  said :  "  To  Icilius,  and  not  to 
you,  Appius,  have  I  betrothed  my  daughter,  and  for  matri- 
mony, not  for  prostitution,  have  I  brought  her  up.  Would 
you  have  men  gratify  their  lust  promiscuously,  like  cattle  and 
wild  beasts  ?  Whether  these  persons  will  endure  such  things, 
I  know  not;  I  do  not  think  that  those  will  do  so  who  have 
arms  in  their  hands."  When  the  claimant  of  the  girl  was  re- 
pulsed by  the  crowd  of  women  and  supporters  who  were  stand- 
ing around  her,  silence  was  proclaimed  by  the  crier. 

The  decemvir,  as  if  he  had  lost  his  reason  owing  to  his  pas- 
sion, stated  that  not  only  from  Icilius's  abusive  harangue  of 
the  day  before,  and  the  violence  of  Verginius,  of  which  he 
could  produce  the  entire  Roman  people  as  witnesses,  but  from 
authentic  information  also  he  had  ascertained  that  secret  meet- 
ings were  held  in  the  city  throughout  the  night  with  the  ob- 
ject of  stirring  up  sedition :  that  he,  accordingly,  being  aware 
of  that  danger,  had  come  down  with  armed  soldiers,  not  to 
molest  any  peaceable  person,  but  in  order  to  punish,  as  the 
majesty  of  the  government  demanded,  those  who  disturbed 
the  tranquility  of  the  state.  "  It  will,  therefore,"  said  he,  "  be 
better  to  remain  quiet:  go,  lictor,  disperse  the  crowd,  and 
clear  the  way  for  the  master  to  lay  hold  of  his  slave."  After 
he  had  thundered  out  these  words,  full  of  wrath,  the  multitude 
of  their  own  accord  dispersed,  and  the  girl  stood  deserted,  a 


202  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  449 

sacrifice  to  injustice.  Then  Verginius,  when  he  saw  no  aid 
anywhere,  said :  "  I  beg  you,  Appius,  first  pardon  a  father's 
grief,  if  I  have  attacked  you  too  harshly:  in  the  next  place, 
suffer  me  to  ask  the  nurse  here  in  presence  of  the  maiden, 
what  all  this  means,  that,  if  I  have  been  falsely  called  her  fa- 
ther, I  may  depart  hence  with  mind  more  tranquil."  Permis- 
sion having  been  granted,  he  drew  the  girl  and  the  nurse  aside 
to  the  booths  near  the  chapel  of  Cloacina,1  which  now  go  by  the 
name  of  the  New  Booths : 2  and  there,  snatching  a  knife  from  a 
butcher,  "  In  this,  the  only  one  way  I  can,  my  daughter,"  said 
he,  "  do  I  secure  to  you  your  liberty."  He  then  plunged  it  into 
the  girl's  breast,  and  looking  back  toward  the  tribunal,  said, 
"  With  this  blood  I  devote  thee,3  Appius,  and  thy  head !  "  Ap- 
pius, aroused  by  the  cry  raised  at  so  dreadful  a  deed,  ordered 
Verginius  to  be  seized.  He,  armed  with  the  knife,  cleared  the 
way  whithersoever  he  went,  until,  protected  by  the  crowd  of 
persons  attending  him,  he  reached  the  gate.  Icilius  and  Nu- 
mitorius  took  up  the  lifeless  body  and  showed  it  to  the  people; 
they  deplored  the  villainy  of  Appius,  the  fatal  beauty  of  the 
maiden,  and  the  cruel  lot  of  the  father.4  The  matrons,  follow- 
ing, cried  out:  Was  this  the  condition  of  rearing  children? 
were  these  the  rewards  of  chastity?  and  other  things  which 
female  grief  on  such  occasions  suggests,  when  their  com- 
plaints are  so  much  the  more  affecting,  in  proportion  as  their 
grief  is  more  intense  from  their  want  of  self-control.  The  men, 
and  more  especially  Icilius,  spoke  of  nothing  but  the  tribuni- 
cian  power,  and  the  right  of  appeal  to  the  people  which  had 
been  taken  from  them,  and  gave  vent  to  their  indignation  in 
regard  to  the  condition  of  public  affairs. 

The  multitude  was  excited  partly  by  the  heinousness  of 
the  misdeed,  partly  by  the  hope  of  recovering  their  liberty  on 
a  favourable  opportunity.  Appius  first  ordered  Icilius  to  be 
summoned  before  him,  then,  when  he  refused  to  come,  to  be 
seized:  finally,  when  the  officers  were  not  allowed  an  oppor- 
tunity of  approaching  him,  he  himself,  proceeding  through 
the  crowd  with  a  body  of  young  patricians,  ordered  him  to  be 
led  away  to  prison.  Now  not  only  the  multitude,  but  Lucius 
Valerius  and  Marcus  Horatius,  the  leaders  of  the  multitude, 
stood  around  Icilius  and,  having  repulsed  the  lictor,  declared, 
that,  if  Appius  should  proceed  according  to  law,  they  would 

1  Venus  Cloacina  (she  who  cleanses). — D.  O. 

*  On  two  sides  of  the  forum  were  colonnades,  between  the  pillars  of 
which   were  tradesmen's  booths  known  as  "the  Old  Booths  "and  "the 
New  Booths." 

*  That  is,  to  the  infernal  gods. 

4  See  Macaulay's  "  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome"  :  "Virginia." 


B.  C.  449]  VERGINIUS  AT  THE   CAMP  203 

protect  Icilius  from  one  who  was  but  a  private  citizen ;  if  he 
should  attempt  to  employ  force,  that  even  in  that  case  they 
would  be  no  unequal  match  for  him.  Hence  arose  a  violent 
quarrel.  The  decemvir's  lictor  attacked  Valerius  and  Hora- 
tius :  the  fasces  were  broken  by  the  people.  Appius  ascended 
the  tribunal ;  Horatius  and  Valerius  followed  him.  They  were 
attentively  listened  to  by  the  assembly:  the  voice  of  the  de- 
cemvir was  drowned  with  clamour.  Now  Valerius,  as  if  he 
possessed  the  authority  to  do  so,  was  ordering  the  lictors  to 
depart  from  one  who  was  but  a  private  citizen,  when  Appius, 
whose  spirits  were  now  broken,  alarmed  for  his  life,  betook 
himself  into  a  house  in  the  vicinity  of  the  forum,  unobserved 
by  his  enemies,  with  his  head  covered  up.  Spurius  Oppius,  in 
order  to  assist  his  colleague,  rushed  into  the  forum  by  the 
opposite  side:  he  saw  their  authority  overpowered  by  force. 
Distracted  then  by  various  counsels  and  by  listening  to  several 
advisers  from  every  side,  he  had  become  hopelessly  confused : 
eventually  he  ordered  the  senate  to  be  convened.  Because 
the  official  acts  of  the  decemvirs  seemed  displeasing  to  the 
greater  portion  of  the  patricians,  this  step  quieted  the  people 
with  the  hope  that  the  government  would  be  abolished 
through  the  senate.  The  senate  was  of  opinion  that  the  com- 
mons should  not  be  stirred  up,  and  that  much  more  effectual 
measures  should  be  taken  lest  the  arrival  of  Verginius  should 
cause  any  commotion  in  the  army. 

Accordingly,  some  of  the  junior  patricians,  being  sent  to 
the  camp  which  was  at  that  time  on  Mount  Vecilius,  an- 
nounced to  the  decemvirs  that  they  should  do  their  utmost  to 
keep  the  soldiers  from  mutinying.  There  Verginius  occa- 
sioned greater  commotion  than  he  had  left  behind  him  in  the 
city.  For  besides  that  he  was  seen  coming  with  a  body  of 
nearly  four  hundred  men,  who,  enraged  in  consequence  of  the 
disgraceful  nature  of  the  occurrence,  had  accompanied  him 
from  the  city,  the  unsheathed  knife,  and  his  being  himself  be- 
smeared with  blood,  attracted  to  him  the  attention  of  the  en- 
tire camp ;  and  the  gowns,1  seen  in  many  parts  of  the  camp, 
had  caused  the  number  of  people  from  the  city  to  appear  much 
greater  than  it  really  was.  When  they  asked  him  what  was 
the  matter,  in  consequence  of  his  weeping,  for  a  long  time  he 
did  not  utter  a  word.  At  length,  as  soon  as  the  crowd  of  those 
running  together  became  quiet  after  the  disturbance,  and  si- 
lence ensued,  he  related  everything  in  order  as  it  had  occurred. 
Then  extending  his  hands  toward  heaven,  addressing  his  fel- 
low-soldiers, he  begged  of  them,  not  to  impute  to  him  that 

1  The  civilian  togas.— D.  O. 


204  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  449 

which  was  the  crime  of  Appius  Claudius,  nor  to  abhor  him  as 
the  murderer  of  his  child.  To  him  the  life  of  his  daughter  was 
dearer  than  his  own,  if  she  had  been  allowed  to  live  in  freedom 
and  chastity.  When  he  beheld  her  dragged  to  prostitution  as 
if  she  were  a  slave,  thinking  it  better  that  his  child  should  be 
lost  by  death  rather  than  by  dishonour,  through  compassion 
for  her  he  had  apparently  fallen  into  cruelty.  Nor  would  he 
have  survived  his  daughter  had  he  not  entertained  the  hope 
of  avenging  her  death  by  the  aid  of  his  fellow-soldiers.  For 
they  too  had  daughters,  sisters,  and  wives ;  nor  was  the  lust  of 
Appius  Claudius  extinguished  with  his  daughter;  but  in  pro- 
portion as  it  escaped  with  greater  impunity,  so  much  the  more 
unbridled  would  it  be.  That  by  the  calamity  of  another  a 
warning  was  given  to  them  to  guard  against  a  similar  injury. 
As  far  as  he  was  concerned,  his  wife  had  been  taken  from  him 
by  destiny;  his  daughter,  because  she  could  no  longer  have 
lived  as  a  chaste  woman,  had  met  with  an  unfortunate  but 
honourable  death ;  that  there  was  now  no  longer  in  his  family 
an  opportunity  for  the  lust  of  Appius;  that  from  any  other 
violence  of  his  he  would  defend  his  person  with  the  same  spirit 
with  which  he  had  vindicated  that  of  his  daughter :  that  others 
should  take  care  for  themselves  and  their  children.  While  he 
uttered  these  words  in  a  loud  voice,  the  multitude  responded 
with  a  shout,  that  they  would  not  be  backward,  either  to 
avenge  his  wrongs  or  to  defend  their  own  liberty.  And  the 
civilians  mixing  with  the  crowd  of  soldiers,  by  uttering  the 
same  complaints,  and  by  showing  how  much  more  shocking 
these  things  must  have  appeared  when  seen  than  when  merely 
heard  of,  and  also  by  telling  them  that  the  disturbance  at  Rome 
was  now  almost  over — and  others  having  subsequently  arrived 
who  asserted  that  Appius,  having  with  difficulty  escaped  with 
life,  had  gone  into  exile — all  these  individuals  so  far  influenced 
them  that  there  was  a  general  cry  to  arms,  and  having  pulled 
up  the  standards,  they  set  out  for  Rome.  The  decemvirs,  be- 
ing alarmed  at  the  same  time  both  by  what  they  now  saw,  as 
well  as  by  what  they  had  heard  had  taken  place  at  Rome,  ran 
about  to  different  parts  of  the  camp  to  quell  the  commotion. 
While  they  proceeded  with  mildness  no  answer  was  returned 
to  them:  if  any  of  them  attempted  to  exert  authority,  the 
soldiers  replied,  that  they  were  men  and  were  armed.  They 
proceeded  in  a  body  to  the  city  and  occupied  the  Aventine, 
encouraging  the  commons,  as  each  person  met  them,  to 
recover  their  liberty,  and  elect  tribunes  of  the  people;  no 
other  expression  of  violence  was  heard.  Spurius  Oppius  held 
a  meeting  of  the  senate ;  it  was  resolved  that  no  harsh  meas- 


B.  c.  449]       AMBASSADORS  FROM  THE  SENATE 

ures  should  be  adopted,  inasmuch  as  occasion  for  sedition  had 
been  given  by  themselves.1  Three  men  of  consular  rank,  Spu- 
rius  Tarpeius,  Gaius  Julius,  Publius  Sulpicius,  were  sent  as 
ambassadors,  to  inquire,  in  the  name  of  the  senate,  by  whose 
orders  they  had  deserted  the  camp?  or  what  they  meant  by 
having  occupied  the  Aventine  in  arms,  and,  turning  away 
their  arms  from  the  enemy,  having  seized  their  own  country? 
They  were  at  no  loss  for  an  answer :  but  they  wanted  some  one 
to  give  the  answer,  there  being  as  yet  no  certain  leader,  and  in- 
dividuals were  not  bold  enough  to  expose  themselves  to  the 
invidious  office.  The  multitude  only  cried  out  with  one  ac- 
cord, that  they  should  send  Lucius  Valerius  and  Marcus 
Horatius  to  them,  saying  that  they  would  give  their  answer  to 
them. 

The  ambassadors  being  dismissed,  Verginius  reminded  the 
soldiers  that  a  little  while  before  they  had  been  embarrassed 
in  a  matter  of  no  very  great  difficulty,  because  the  multitude 
was  without  a  head ;  and  that  the  answer  given,  though  not 
inexpedient,  was  the  result  rather  of  an  accidental  agreement 
than  of  a  concerted  plan.  His  opinion  was,  that  ten  persons 
should  be  elected  to  preside  over  the  management  of  state 
affairs,  and  that  they  should  be  called  tribunes  of  the  soldiers, 
a  title  suited  to  their  military  dignity.  When  that  honour 
was  offered  to  himself  in  the  first  instance,  he  replied,  "  Re- 
serve for  an  occasion  more  favourable  to  both  of  us  your  kind 
recognition  of  me.  The  fact  of  my  daughter  being  unavenged, 
does  not  allow  any  office  to  be  agreeable  to  me,  nor,  in  the 
present  disturbed  condition  of  the  state,  is  it  advantageous 
that  those  should  be  at  your  head  who  are  most  exposed  to 
party  animosity.  If  I  am  of  any  use,  the  benefit  to  be  gained 
from  my  services  will  be  just  as  great  while  I  am  a  private  in- 
dividual." They  accordingly  elected  military  tribunes  ten  in 
number. 

Meanwhile  the  army  among  the  Sabines  was  not  inactive. 
There  also,  at  the  instance  of  Icilius  and  Numitorius,  a  seces- 
sion from  the  decemvirs  -took  place,  men's  minds  being  no  less 
moved  when  they  recalled  to  mind  the  murder  of  Siccius,  than 
when  they  were  fired  with  rage  at  the  recent  account  of  the 
disgraceful  attempt  made  on  the  maiden  to  gratify  lust.  When 
Icilius  heard  that  tribunes  of  the  soldiers  had  been  elected 
on  the  Aventine,  lest  the  election  assembly  in  the  city  should 
follow  the  precedent  of  the  military  assembly,  by  electing 
the  same  persons  tribunes  of  the  commons,  being  well  versed 
in  popular  intrigues  and  having  an  eye  to  that  office  himself, 
1  Appius  Claudius,  a  member  of  their  order. — D.  O. 


2o6  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.449 

he  also  took  care,  before  they  proceeded  to  the  city,  that  the 
same  number  should  be  elected  by  his  own  party  with  equal 
power.  They  entered  the  city  by  the  Colline  gate  under  their 
standards,  and  proceeded  in  a  body  to  the  Aventine  through 
the  midst  of  the  city.  There,  joining  the  other  army,  they 
commissioned  the  twenty  tribunes  of  the  soldiers  to  select  two 
out  of  their  number  to  preside  over  state  affairs.  They  elected 
Marcus  Oppius  and  Sextus  Manilius.  The  patricians,  alarmed 
for  the  general  safety,  though  there  was  a  meeting  of  the  sen- 
ate every  day,  wasted  the  time  in  wrangling  more  frequently 
than  in  deliberation.  The  murder  of  Siccius,  the  lust  of  Ap- 
pius,  and  the  disgraces  incurred  in  war  were  urged  as  charges 
against  the  decemvirs.  It  was  resolved  that  Valerius  and 
Horatius  should  proceed  to  the  Aventine.  They  refused  to 
go  on  any  other  condition  than  that  the  decemvirs  should 
lay  down  the  badges  of  that  office,  which  they  had  resigned  at 
the  end  of  the  previous  year.  The  decemvirs,  complaining 
that  they  were  now  being  degraded,  declared  that  they  would 
not  resign  their  office  until  those  laws,  for  the  sake  of  which 
they  had  been  appointed,  were  passed. 

The  people  being  informed  by  Marcus  Duillius,  who  had 
been  tribune  of  the  people,  that  by  reason  of  their  continual 
contentions  no  business  was  transacted,  passed  from  the  Aven- 
tine to  the  Sacred  Mount,  as  Duillius  asserted  that  no  concern 
for  business  would  enter  the  minds  of  the  patricians,  until  they 
saw  the  city  deserted :  that  the  Sacred  Mount  would  remind 
them  of  the  people's  firmness :  that  they  would  then  know  that 
matters  could  not  be  brought  back  to  harmony  without  the 
restoration  of  the  tribunician  power.  Having  set  out  along  the 
Nomentan  way,  which  was  then  called  the  Ficulean,1  they 
pitched  their  camp  on  the  Sacred  Mount,  imitating  the  mod- 
eration of  their  fathers  by  committing  no  violence.  The  com- 
mons followed  the  army,  no  one  whose  age  would  permit  him 
declining  to  go.  Their  wives  and  children  attended  them, 
piteously  asking  to  whom  they  were  leaving  them,  in  a  city 
where  neither  chastity  nor  liberty  were  respected?  When 
the  unusual  solitude  had  created  everywhere  at  Rome  a  feeling 
of  desolation ;  when  there  was  no  one  in  the  forum  but  a  few 
old  men :  when,  after  the  patricians  had  been  summoned  into 
the  senate,  the  forum  appeared  deserted,  by  this  time  more 
besides  Horatius  and  Valerius  began  to  exclaim,  "  What  will 
you  now  wait  for,  conscript  fathers  ?  If  the  decemvirs  do  not 
put  an  end  to  their  obstinacy,  will  you  suffer  all  things  to  go 
to  wreck  and  ruin  ?  What  power  is  that  of  yours,  decemvirs, 

1  From  the  Colline  gate. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  449]  AT   THE   SACRED   MOUNT  2O? 

which  you  embrace  and  hold  so  firmly?  do  you  mean  to  ad- 
minister justice  to  walls  and  houses  ?  Are  you  not  ashamed 
that  an  almost  greater  number  of  your  lictors  is  to  be  seen  in 
the  forum  than  of  the  other  citizens  ?  What  are  you  going  to 
do,  in  case  the  enemy  should  approach  the  city  ?  What,  if  the 
commons  should  come  presently  in  arms,  in  case  we  show  our- 
selves little  affected  by  their  secession?  do  you  mean  to  end 
your  power  by  the  fall  of  the  city  ?  Well,  then,  either  we  must 
not  have  the  commons,  or  they  must  have  their  tribunes.  We 
shall  sooner  be  able  to  dispense  with  our  patrician  magistrates, 
than  they  with  their  plebeian.  That  power,  when  new  and  un- 
tried, they  wrested  from  our  fathers :  much  less  will  they  now, 
when  once  captivated  by  its  charm,  endure  the  loss  of:  more 
especially  since  we  do  not  behave  with  such  moderation  in  the 
exercise  of  our  power,  that  they  are  in  no  need  of  the  aid  of 
the  tribunes."  When  these  arguments  were  thrown  out  from 
every  quarter,  the  decemvirs,  overpowered  by  the  united  opin- 
ions of  all,  declared  that,  since  such  seemed  to  be  the  feeling, 
they  would  submit  to  the  authority  of  the  patricians.  All  they 
asked  for  themeselves  was,  that  they  might  be  protected  from 
popular  odium :  they  warned  the  senate,  that  they  should  not, 
by  shedding  their  blood,  habituate  the  people  to  inflict  punish- 
ment on  the  patricians. 

Then  Valerius  and  Horatius,  having  been  sent  to  bring 
back  the  people  on  such  terms  as  might  seem  fit,  and  to  adjust 
all  differences,  were  directed  to  make  provision  also  to  protect 
the  decemvirs  from  the  resentment  and  violence  of  the  multi- 
tude. They  set  forth  and  were  received  into  the  camp  amid 
the  great  joy  of  the  people,  as  their  undoubted  liberators, 
both  at  the  beginning  of  the  disturbance  and  at  the  termina- 
tion of  the  matter.  In  consideration  of  these  things,  thanks 
were  returned  to  them  on  their  arrival.  Icilius  delivered  a 
speech  in  the  name  of  the  people.  When  the  terms  came  to 
be  considered,  on  the  ambassadors  inquiring  what  were  the 
demands  of  the  people,  he  also,  having  already  concerted  the 
plan  before  the  arrival  of  the  ambassadors,  made  such  de- 
mands, that  it  became  evident  that  more  hope  was  placed  in 
the  justice  of  their  case  than  in  arms.  For  they  demanded  the 
restoration  of  the  tribunician  office  and  the  right  of  appeal, 
which,  before  the  appointment  of  decemvirs,  had  been  the  sup- 
ports of  the  people,  and  that  it  should  be  without  detriment  to 
any  one  to  have  instigated  the  soldiers  or  the  commons  to 
seek. to  recover  their  liberty  by  a  secession.  Concerning  the 
punishment  only  of  the  decemvirs  was  their  demand  immoder- 
ate :  for  they  thought  it  but  just  that  they  should  be  delivered 


208  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  449 

up  to  them,  and  threatened  to  burn  them  alive.  The  ambas- 
sadors replied :  "  Your  demands  which  have  been  the  result 
of  deliberation  are  so  reasonable,  that  they  should  be  volunta- 
rily offered  to  you :  for  you  demand  therein  safeguards  for  your 
liberty,  not  a  means  of  arbitrary  power  to  assail  others.  Your 
resentment  we  must  rather  pardon  than  indulge,  seeing  that 
from  your  hatred  of  cruelty  you  rush  into  cruelty,  and  almost 
before  you  are  free  yourselves,  already  wish  to  lord  it  over 
your  opponents.  Shall  our  state  never  enjoy  rest  from  punish- 
ments, inflicted  either  by  the  patricians  on  the  Roman  com- 
mons, or  by  the  commons  on  the  patricians  ?  you  need  a  shield 
rather  than  a  sword.  He  is  sufficiently  and  abundantly  hum- 
bled who  lives  in  the  state  on  an  equal  footing  with  his  fellow- 
citizens,  neither  inflicting  nor  suffering  injury.  Should  you, 
however,  at  any  time  wish  to  render  yourselves  formidable, 
when,  after  you  have  recovered  your  magistrates  and  laws,  de- 
cisions on  our  lives  and  fortunes  shall  be  in  your  hands,  then 
you  shall  determine  according  to  the  merits  of  each  case :  for 
the  present  it  is  sufficient  that  your  liberty  be  recovered." 

All  assenting  that  they  should  act  just  as  they  thought 
proper,  the  ambassadors  assured  them  that  they  would  speedily 
return,  having  brought  everything  to  a  satisfactory  termination. 
When  they  had  gone  and  laid  before  the  patricians  the  mes- 
sage of  the  commons — while  the  other  decemvirs,  since,  con- 
trary to  their  own  expectation,  no  mention  was  made  of  their 
punishment — raised  no  objection,  Appius,  being  of  a  truculent 
disposition  and  the  chief  object  of  detestation,  measuring  the 
rancour  of  others  toward  him  by  his  own  toward  them,  said : 
"  I  am  not  ignorant  of  the  fate  which  threatens  me.  I  see  that 
the  contest  against  us  is  only  deferred  until  our  arms  are  de- 
livered up  to  our  adversaries.  Blood  must  be  offered  up  to 
popular  rage.  I  do  not  even  hesitate  to  resign  my  decemvi- 
rate."  A  decree  of  the  senate  was  then  passed :  that  the  de- 
cemvirs should  as  soon  as  possible  resign  their  office ;  that 
Quintus  Furius,  chief  pontiff,  should  hold  an  election  of  ple- 
beian tribunes,  and  that  the  secession  of  the  soldiers  and  com- 
mons should  not  be  detrimental  to  any  one.  These  decrees  of 
the  senate  being  completed,  and  the  senate  dismissed,  the  de- 
cemvirs came  forth  into  the  assembly,  and  resigned  their  office, 
to  the  great  joy  of  all.  News  of  this  was  carried  to  the  com- 
mons. All  those  who  remained  in  the  city  escorted  the  am- 
bassadors. This  crowd  was  met  by  another  joyous  body  from 
the  camp ;  they  congratulated  each  other  on  the  restoration  of 
liberty  and  concord  to  the  state.  The  deputies  spoke  as  fol- 
lows before  the  assembly :  "  Be  it  advantageous,  fortunate, 


B.  C.  449]  RETURN   TO   THE   CITY  209 

and  happy  for  you  and  the  republic — return  to  your  country, 
to  your  household  gods,  your  wives  and  children;  but  carry 
into  the  city  the  same  moderation  which  you  observed  here, 
where,  in  spite  of  the  pressing  need  of  so  many  things  neces- 
sary for  so  large  a  number  of  persons,  no  man's  field  has  been 
injured.  Go  to  the  Aventine,  whence  you  set  out.  There,  in 
that  auspicious  place,  where  you  laid  the  first  beginnings  of 
your  liberty,  you  shall  elect  tribunes  of  the  people.  The 
chief  pontiff  will  be  at  hand  to  hold  the  elections."  Great  was 
their  approval  and  joy,  as  evinced  in  their  assent  to  every 
measure.  They  then  pulled  up  their  standards,  and  having  set 
out  for  Rome,  vied  in  exultation  with  all  they  met.  Silently, 
under  arms,  they  marched  through  the  city  and  reached  the 
Aventine.  There,  the  chief  pontiff  holding  the  meeting  for  the 
elections,  they  immediately  elected  as  their  tribunes  of  the 
people,  first  of  all  Lucius  Verginius,  then  Lucius  Icilius,  and 
Publius  Numitorius,  the  uncle  of  Verginius,  who  had  recom- 
mended the  secession :  then  Gaius  Sicinius,  the  offspring  of 
him  who  is  recorded  to  have  been  elected  first  tribune  of  the 
commons  on  the  Sacred  Mount ;  and  Marcus  Duillius,  who 
had  held  a  distinguished  tribuneship  before  the  appointment 
of  the  decemvirs,  and  never  failed  the  commons  in  their  con- 
tests with  the  decemvirs.  Marcus  Titinius,  Marcus  Pomponius, 
Gaius  Apronius,  Appius  Villius,  and  Gaius  Oppius,  were  elect- 
ed more  from  hope  entertained  of  them  than  from  any  actual 
services.  When  he  entered  on  his  tribuneship,  Lucius  Icilius 
immediately  brought  before  the  people,  and  the  people  enact- 
ed, that  the  secession  from  the  decemvirs  which  had  taken 
place  should  not  prove  detrimental  to  any  individual.  Imme- 
diately after  Duillius  carried  a  proposition  for  electing  consuls, 
with  right  of  appeal.1  All  these  things  were  transacted  in  an 
assembly  of  the  commons  in  the  Flaminian  meadows,  which 
are  now  called  the  Flaminian  Circus.2 

Then,  through  an  interrex,  Lucius  Valerius  and  Marcus 
Horatius  were  elected  consuls,  and  immediately  entered  on 
their  office ;  their  consulship,  agreeable  to  the  people,  although 
it  did  no  injury  to  the  patricians,  was  not,  however,  without 
giving  them  offence;  for  whatever  measures  were  taken  to 
secure  the  liberty  of  the  people,  they  considered  to  be  a  dimi- 
nution of  their  own  power.  First  of  all,  when  it  was  as  it 
were  a  disputed  point  of  law,  whether  patricians  were  bound 
by  regulations  enacted  in  an  assembly  of  the  commons,  they 

1  From  whose  decision  an  appeal  would  lie. 

*  The  church  of  S.  Caterina  de'  Fernari  now  stands  within  its  lines. — 
D.  O. 

M 


2io  LIVY'S   ROMAN    HISTORY  [6.0.449 

proposed  a  law  in  the  assembly  of  the  centuries,  that  whatever 
the  commons  ordered  in  the  assembly  of  the  tribes,  should  be 
binding  on  the  entire  people ;  by  which  law  a  most  keen-edged 
weapon  of  offence  was  given  to  the  motions  introduced  by 
tribunes.  Then  another  law  made  by  a  consul  concerning  the 
right  of  appeal,  a  singularly  effective  safeguard  of  liberty,  that 
had  been  upset  by  the  decemviral  power,  was  not  only  restored, 
but  also  guarded  for  the  time  to  come,  by  the  passing  of  a  new 
law,  that  no  one  should  appoint  any  magistrate  without  ap- 
peal : 1  if  any  person  should  so  appoint,  it  should  be  lawful  and 
right  that  he  be  put  to  death ;  and  that  such  killing  should  not 
be  deemed  a  capital  offence.  And  when  they  had  sufficiently 
secured  the  commons  by  the  right  of  appeal  on  the  one  hand, 
by  tribunician  aid  on  the  other,  they  revived  for  the  tribunes 
themselves  the  privilege  that  their  persons  should  be  consid- 
ered inviolable — the  recollection  of  which  was  now  almost  for- 
gotten— by  renewing  after  a  long  interval  certain  ceremonies 
which  had  fallen  into  disuse ;  and  they  rendered  them  invio- 
lable by  religion,  as  well  as  by  a  law,  enacting  that  whoso- 
ever should  offer  injury  to  tribunes  of  the  people,  aediles,  or 
judicial  decemvirs,  his  person  should  be  devoted  to  Jupiter, 
and  his  property  be  sold  at  the  Temple  of  Ceres,  Liber,  and 
Libera.  Expounders  of  the  law  deny  that  any  person  is  by 
this  law  inviolable,  but  assert  that  he,  who  may  do  an  injury 
to  any  of  them,  is  deemed  by  law  accursed :  and  that,  accord- 
ingly, an  sedile  may  be  arrested  and  carried  to  prison  by  su- 
perior magistrates,  which,  though  it  be  not  expressly  war- 
ranted by  law  (for  an  injury  is  done  to  a  person  to  whom  it  is 
not  lawful  to  do  an  injury  according  to  this  law),  is  yet  a  proof 
that  an  sedile  is  not  considered  as  sacred  and  inviolable;  the 
tribunes,  however,  are  sacred  and  inviolable  according  to  the 
ancient  oath  of  the  commons,  when  first  they  created  that 
office.  There  have  been  some  who  supposed  that  by  this  same 
Horatian  law  provision  was  made  for  the  consuls  also  and  the 
praetors,  because  they  were  elected  under  the  same  auspices 
as  the  consuls;  for  a  consul  was  called  a  judge.  This  inter- 
pretation is  refuted,  because  at  this  time  it  had  not  yet  been 
customary  for  the  consul  to  be  styled  judge,  but  praetor.2 
These  were  the  laws  proposed  by  the  consuls.  It  was  also 
arranged  by  the  same  consuls,  that  decrees  of  the  senate, 

1  Evidently  this  could  not  apply  to  a  dictator. — D.  O. 

1  The  name  consul,  although  used  by  Livy  (Bk.  I,  ch.  Ix),  was  not 
really  employed  until  after  the  period  of  the  decemvirs.  The  title  in 
early  use  was  praetor  :  it  is  not  definitely  known  when  the  name  judex 
was  attached  to  the  office. 


B.  C.  449]  TRIAL  OF  APPIUS  211 

which  before  that  used  to  be  suppressed  and  altered  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  consuls,  should  be  deposited  in  the  Temple  of 
Ceres,  under  the  care  of  the  sediles  of  the  commons.  Then 
Marcus  Duillius,  tribune  of  the  commons,  brought  before  the 
people,  and  the  people  enacted,  that  whoever  left  the  people 
without  tribunes,  and  whoever  caused  a  magistrate  to  be  elect- 
ed without  appeal,  should  be  punished  with  stripes  and  be- 
headed. All  these  enactments,  though  against  the  feelings  of 
the  patricians,  passed  off  without  opposition  from  them,  be- 
cause as  yet  no  severity  was  aimed  at  any  particular  individual. 
Then,  both  the  tribunician  power  and  the  liberty  of  the 
commons  having  been  firmly  established,  the  tribunes,  now 
deeming  it  both  safe  and  seasonable  to  attack  individuals, 
singled  out  Verginius  as  the  first  prosecutor  and  Appius  as 
defendant.  When  Verginius  had  appointed  a  day  for  Ap- 
pius to  take  his  trial,  and  Appius  had  come  down  to  the  forum, 
accompanied  by  a  band  of  young  patricians,  the  recollection  of 
his  most  profligate  exercise  of  power  was  instantly  revived  in 
the  minds  of  all,  as  soon  as  they  beheld  the  man  himself  and 
his  satellites.  Then  said  Verginius :  "  Long  speeches  are 
only  meant  for  matters  of  a  doubtful  nature.  Accordingly,  I 
shall  neither  waste  time  in  dwelling  on  the  guilt  of  this  man 
before  you,  from  whose  cruelty  you  have  rescued  yourselves 
by  force  of  arms,  nor  will  I  suffer  him  to  add  impudence  to  his 
other  crimes  in  defending  himself.  Wherefore,  Appius  Clau- 
dius, I  pardon  you  for  all  the  impious  and  nefarious  deeds  you 
have  had  the  effrontery  to  commit  one  after  another  for  the 
last  two  years ;  with  respect  to  one  charge  only,  unless  you  shall 
choose  a  judge  who  shall  acquit  you  that  you  have  not  sentenced 
a  free  person  to  slavery,  contrary  to  the  laws,  I  shall  order  that 
you  be  taken  into  custody."  Neither  in  the  aid  of  the  tribunes, 
nor  in  the  judgment  of  the  people,  could  Appius  place  any 
hope :  still  he  both  appealed  to  the  tribunes,  and,  when  no  one 
heeded  him,  being  seized  by  the  officer,  he  exclaimed,  "  I  ap- 
peal." The  hearing  of  this  one  word,  that  safeguard  of  lib- 
erty, and  the  fact  that  it  was  uttered  from  that  mouth,  by  which 
a  free  citizen  was  so  recently  consigned  to  slavery,  caused  si- 
lence. And,  while  they  loudly  declared,  each  on  his  own  be- 
half, that  at  length  the  existence  of  the  gods  was  proved,  and 
that  they  did  not  disregard  human  affairs;  and  that  pun- 
ishments awaited  tyranny  and  cruelty,  which  punishments, 
though  late,  were,  however,  by  no  means  light ;  that  that  man 
now  appealed,  who  had  abolished  all  right  of  appeal ;  and  that 
he  implored  the  protection  of  the  people,  who  had  trampled 
under  foot  all  the  rights  of  the  people :  and  that  he  was  being 


2i2  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [2.0.449 

dragged  off  to  prison,  destitute  of  the  rights  of  liberty,  who 
had  doomed  a  free  person  to  slavery,  the  voice  of  Appius  him- 
self was  heard,  amid  the  murmurs  of  the  assembly,  imploring  the 
protection  of  the  Roman  people.  He  enumerated  the  services 
of  his  ancestors  to  the  state,  at  home  and  abroad :  his  own  un- 
fortunate anxiety  for  the  interests  of  the  Roman  commons, 
owing  to  which  he  had  resigned  the  consulship,  to  the  very 
great  displeasure  of  the  patricians,  for  the  purpose  of  equaliz- 
ing the  laws ;  he  then  went  on  to  mention  those  laws  of  his, 
the  framer  of  which  was  dragged  off  to  prison,  though  the  laws 
still  remained  in  force.  However,  in  regard  to  what  bore 
especially  on  his  own  case,  his  personal  merits  and  demerits, 
he  would  make  trial  of  them,  when  an  opportunity  should  be 
afforded  him  of  stating  his  defence ;  at  present,  he,  a  Roman 
citizen,  demanded,  by  the  common  right  of  citizenship,  that  he 
be  allowed  to  speak  on  the  day  appointed,  and  to  appeal  to  the 
judgment  of  the  Roman  people:  he  did  not  dread  popular 
odium  so  much  as  not  to  place  any  hope  in  the  fairness  and 
compassion  of  his  fellow-citizens.  But  if  he  were  led  to  prison 
without  being  heard,  that  he  once  more  appealed  to  the  trib- 
unes of  the  people,  and  warned  them  not  to  imitate  those 
whom  they  hated.  But  if  the  tribunes  acknowledged  them- 
selves bound  by  the  same  agreement  for  abolishing  the  right  of 
appeal,  which  they  charged  the  decemvirs  with  having  con- 
spired to  form,  then  he  appealed  to  the  people,  he  implored 
the  aid  of  the  laws  passed  that  very  year,  both  by  the  consuls 
and  tribunes,  regarding  the  right  of  appeal.  For  who  would 
there  be  to  appeal,  if  this  were  not  allowed  a  person  as  yet  un- 
condemned,  whose  case  had  not  been  heard?  what  plebeian  or 
humble  individual  would  find  protection  in  the  laws,  if  Appius 
Claudius  could  not  ?  that  he  would  be  a  proof  whether  tyranny 
or  liberty  was  established  by  the  new  laws,  and  whether  the 
right  of  appeal  and  of  challenge  against  the  injustice  of  magis- 
trates was  only  held  out  in  idle  words,  or  really  granted. 

Verginius,  on  the  other  hand,  affirmed  that  Appius  Clau- 
dius was  the  only  person  who  had  no  part  or  share  in  the  laws, 
or  in  any  covenant  civil  or  human.  Men  should  look  to  the 
tribunal,  the  fortress  of  all  villainies,  where  that  perpetual  de- 
cemvir, venting  his  fury  on  the  property,  person,  and  life  of 
the  citizens,  threatening  all  with  his  rods  and  axes,  a  despiser 
of  gods  and  men,  surrounded  by  men  who  were  executioners, 
not  lictors,  turning  his  thoughts  from  rapine  and  murder  to 
lust,  tore  a  free-born  maiden,  as  if  she  had  been  a  prisoner  of 
war,  from  the  embraces  of  her  father,  before  the  eyes  of  the 
Roman  people,  and  gave  her  as  a  present  to  a  dependent, 


B.C.  449]  PREPARATION   FOR   WAR  21$ 

the  minister  to  his  secret  pleasures :  where  too  by  a  cruel  de- 
cree, and  a  most  outrageous  decision,  he  armed  the  right  hand 
of  the  father  against  the  daughter:  where  he  ordered  the  be- 
trothed and  uncle,  on  their  raising  the  lifeless  body  of  the  girl, 
to  be  led  away  to  prison,  affected  more  by  the  interruption  of 
his  lust  than  by  her  death :  that  the  prison  was  built  for  him 
also,  which  he  was  wont  to  call  the  domicile  of  the  Roman 
commons.  Wherefore,  though  he  might  appeal  again  and 
again,  he  himself  would  again  and  again  propose  a  judge,  to  try 
him  on  the  charge  of  having  sentenced  a  free  person  to  slavery ; 
if  he  would  not  go  before  a  judge,  he  ordered  him  to  be  taken 
to  prison  as  one  already  condemned.  He  was  thrown  into 
prison,  though  without  the  disapprobation  of  any  individual, 
yet  not  without  considerable  emotion  of  the  public  mind,  since, 
in  consequence  of  the  punishment  by  itself  of  so  distinguished  a 
man,  their  own  liberty  began  to  be  considered  by  the  commons 
themselves  as  excessive.1  The  tribunes  adjourned  the  day 
of  trial. 

Meanwhile,  ambassadors  from  the  Hernicans  and  Latins 
came  to  Rome  to  offer  their  congratulations  on  the  har- 
mony existing  between  the  patricians  and  commons,  and  as 
an  offering  on  that  account  to  Jupiter,  best  and  greatest,  they 
brought  into  the  Capitol  a  golden  crown,  of  small  weight,  as 
money  at  that  time  was  not  plentiful,  and  the  duties  of  re- 
ligion were  performed  rather  with  piety  than  splendour.  On 
the  same  authority  it  was  ascertained  that  the  ^quans  and 
Volscians  were  preparing  for  war  with  the  utmost  energy. 
The  consuls  were  therefore  ordered  to  divide  the  provinces 
between  them.  The  Sabines  fell  to  the  lot  of  Horatius,  the 
jEquans  to  Valerius.  After  they  had  proclaimed  a  levy  for 
these  wars,  through  the  good  offices  of  the  commons,  not  only 
the  younger  men,  but  a  large  number,  consisting  of  volunteers 
from  among  those  who  had  served  their  time,2  attended  to  give 
in  their  names :  and  hence  the  army  was  stronger  not  only  in 
the  number  but  also  in  the  quality  of  its  soldiers,  owing  to 
the  admixture  of  veterans.  Before  they  marched  out  of  the 
city,  they  engraved  on  brass,  and  fixed  up  in  public  view,  the 
decemviral  laws,  which  are  named  "  the  twelve  tables."  There 
are  some  who  state  that  the  aediles  discharged  that  office  by 
order  of  the  tribunes. 

Gaius  Claudius,  who,  detesting  the  crimes  of  the  decemvirs 
and,  above  all,  incensed  at  the  arrogant  conduct  of  his  broth- 

1  I  question  the  rendering  of  this  sentence.     To  read  plebis  for  plebi 
would  very  much  improve  the  sense. — D.  O. 
'  Twenty  years. — D.  O. 


214  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  449 

er's  son,  had  retired  to  Regillum,  the  country  of  his  forefathers, 
having  now  returned,  though  by  this  time  advanced  in  years, 
to  endeavour  to  avert  the  dangers  impending  over  him,  whose 
vices  he  had  shunned,  went  about  the  forum,  clad  in  a  mourn- 
ing garment,  with  the  members  of  his  family  and  his  clients, 
and  solicited  the  interest  of  the  citizens  individually,  begging 
them  not  to  desire  the  Claudian  family  to  be  branded  with 
such  a  disgrace  as  to  be  considered  deserving  of  imprisonment 
and  chains;  that  a  man  whose  bust  would  be  most  highly 
honoured  by  posterity,  the  framer  of  their  laws  and  the  founder 
of  Roman  jurisprudence,  should  lie  in  chains  among  nightly 
thieves  and  robbers!  Let  them  turn  away  their  thoughts 
from  resentment  for  a  while  to  examination  and  reflection; 
and  rather  pardon  one  at  the  entreaty  of  so  many  members 
of  the  Claudian  family,  than  through  a  hatred  of  one  spurn 
the  entreaties  of  many ;  he  himself  also  paid  this  tribute  to  the 
family  and  the  name;  nor  had  he  been  reconciled  to  him 
whose  unfortunate  situation  he  wished  relieved ;  by  valour  lib- 
erty had  been  recovered :  by  clemency  the  harmony  of  the  sev- 
eral orders  might  be  established.  Some  there  were  whom  he 
influenced  more  by  his  warm  attachment  to  his  family  than  by 
the  cause  of  him  for  whom  he  pleaded.  But  Verginius  begged 
that  they  would  rather  pity  him  and  his  daughter,  and  that 
they  would  listen  to  the  entreaties,  not  of  the  Claudian  family, 
which  had  allotted  to  its  members  a  sort  of  sovereignty  over 
the  commons,  but  to  those  of  the  near  friends  of  Verginia,  the 
three  tribunes,  who,  having  been  created  to  aid  the  commons, 
were  now  themselves  imploring  the  protection  and  aid  of  that 
same  commons.  These  laments  appeared  more  justified.  Ac- 
cordingly, all  hope  being  cut  off,  Appius  put  an  end  to  his  life 
before  the  day  appointed  for  his  trial  arrived.  Immediately 
after,  Spurius  Oppius,  the  next  object  of  public  indignation, 
because  he  had  been  in  the  city  when  the  unjust  decision  was 
given  by  his  colleague,  was  arraigned  by  Publius  Numitorius. 
However,  a  positive  act  of  injustice  committed  by  Oppius 
brought  more  odium  on  him,  than  the  fact  of  his  not  having 
prevented  the  wrong  committed  by  Appius.  A  witness  was 
brought  forward  who,  after  reckoning  up  twenty  campaigns, 
and  who  had  been  presented  with  a  special  reward  of  valour 
eight  different  times,  and  wearing  these  honours  in  the  sight 
of  the  Roman  people,  tore  open  his  garments  and  exhibited 
his  back  mangled  with  stripes,  begging  for  nothing  else  but 
that,  if  the  accused  could  name  one  single  guilty  act  of  his, 
he  might,  through  a  private  individual,  once  more  repeat  his 
severity  on  him.  Oppius  was  also  thrown  into  prison,  where 


B.  c.  449]  EXILE   OF  THE   DECEMVIRS  215 

he  put  an  end  to  his  life  before  the  day  of  trial.  The  tribunes 
confiscated  the  property  of  Appius  and  Oppius.  Their  col- 
leagues left  their  homes  to  go  into  exile;  their  property  was 
confiscated.  Marcus  Claudius,  the  claimant  of  Verginia,  after 
a  day  had  been  appointed  for  his  trial,  was  condemned:  he 
was,  however,  discharged  and  went  away  into  exile  to  Tibur, 
Verginius  himself  remitting  the  extreme  penalty : x  and  the 
shade  of  Verginia,  happier  after  death  than  she  had  been  dur- 
ing life,  after  having  roamed  through  so  many  families  in 
quest  of  vengeance,  at  length  rested  in  peace,  no  guilty  person 
being  left  unpunished. 

Great  alarm  had  seized  the  patricians,  and  the  faces  of 
the  tribunes  were  now  the  same  as  those  of  the  decemvirs 
had  been,  when  Marcus  Duillius,  tribune  of  the  people,  hav- 
ing put  a  salutary  check  upon  their  excessive  power,  said : 
"  We  have  enjoyed  sufficient  liberty  on  our  own  part,  and 
have  taken  sufficient  vengeance  on  our  enemies;  wherefore 
for  this  year  I  do  not  intend  to  allow  either  a  day  of  trial  to  be 
appointed  for  any  one,  or  any  person  to  be  thrown  into  prison. 
For  it  is  neither  pleasing  to  me  that  old  crimes  now  forgotten 
should  be  raked  up  again,  seeing  that  the  recent  ones  have 
been  atoned  for  by  the  punishment  of  the  decemvirs ;  and  the 
unremitting  care  of  both  the  consuls  in  defending  your  liber- 
ties, is  a  guarantee  that  nothing  will  be  done  of  such  a  na- 
ture as  to  call  for  the  intervention  of  the  authority  of  the 
tribunes."  This  moderation  on  the  part  of  the  tribune  first 
relieved  the  patricians  of  their  fears  and  at  the  same  time  in- 
creased the  feeling  of  ill-will  toward  the  consuls,  for  they  had 
been  so  devoted  to  the  commons,  that  even  a  plebeian  magis- 
trate was  the  first  to  take  interest  in  the  safety  and  political 
independence  of  the  patricians,  before  one  of  patrician  rank, 
and  their  enemies  had  become  surfeited  with  inflicting  punish- 
ments on  them,  before  the  consuls,  to  all  appearance,  would 
have  resisted  their  licentious  career.  And  there  were  many 
who  said  that  sufficiently  energetic  measures  had  not  been 
taken,  inasmuch  as  the  fathers  had  given  their  approbation  to 
the  laws  proposed  by  them :  nor  was  there  any  doubt  that,  in 
the  troubled  state  of  public  affairs,  they  had  yielded  to  the  exi- 
gencies of  the  occasion. 

Affairs  in  the  city  being  thus  arranged,  and  the  rights  of 
the  commons  firmly  established,  the  consuls  departed  to  their 
respective  provinces.  Valerius  prudently  deferred  all  warlike 

1  "The  extreme  penalty,"  that  is,  death  by  being  thrown  from  the 
Tarpeian  rock,  which,  according  to  the  laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables,  was 
the  punishment  for  perjury. 


2i6  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  449 

operations  against  the  armies  of  the  ^quans  and  the  Vol- 
scians,  which  had  now  united  at  Algidum :  whereas,  if  he  had 
immediately  intrusted  the  issue  to  fortune,  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that,  considering  the  feelings  both  of  the  Romans  and  of 
their  enemies  at  that  time,  after  the  unfavourable  auspices  of 
the  decemvirs,1  the  contest  would  have  cost  him  heavy  loss. 
Having  pitched  his  camp  at  the  distance  of  a  mile  from  the 
enemy,  he  kept  his  men  quiet.  The  enemy  filled  the  space 
lying  between  the  two  camps  with  their  army  in  order  of  bat- 
tle, and  not  a  single  Roman  made  answer  when  they  chal- 
lenged them  to  fight.  At  length,  wearied  with  standing  and 
waiting  in  vain  for  a  contest,  the  ^Equans  and  Volscians,  con- 
sidering that  the  victory  was  almost  yielded  to  them,  went  off, 
some  to  Hernican,  others  to  Latin  territory,  to  commit  depre- 
dations. There  was  left  in  the  camp  rather  a  garrison  for  its 
defence  than  sufficient  force  for  a  contest.  When  the  consul 
perceived  this,  he  in  turn  inspired  the  terror  which  his  own 
men  had  previously  felt,  and  having  drawn  up  his  troops  in 
order  of  battle  on  his  side,  provoked  the  enemy  to  fight. 
When  they,  conscious  of  their  lack  of  forces,  declined  battle, 
the  courage  of  the  Romans  immediately  increased,  and  they 
considered  them  vanquished,  as  they  stood  panic-stricken  with- 
in their  rampart.  Having  stood  throughout  the  day  eager 
for  the  contest,  they  retired  at  night.  And  the  Romans,  now 
full  of  hope,  set  about  refreshing  themselves.  The  enemy,  in 
by  no  means  equal  spirits,  being  now  anxious,  despatched  mes- 
sengers in  every  direction  to  recall  the  plundering  parties. 
Those  in  the  nearest  places  returned :  those  who  were  farther 
off  were  not  found.  When  day  dawned,  the  Romans  left  the 
camp,  determined  on  assaulting  the  rampart,  unless  an  oppor- 
tunity of  fighting  presented  itself ;  and  when  the  day  was  now 
far  advanced,  and  no  movement  was  made  by  the  enemy,  the 
consul  ordered  an  advance;  and  the  troops  being  put  in  mo- 
tion, the  ^Equans  and  Volscians  were  seized  with  indignation, 
at  the  thought  that  victorious  armies  had  to  be  defended  by  a 
rampart  rather  than  by  valour  and  arms.  Wherefore  they  also 
earnestly  demanded  the  signal  for  battle  from  their  generals, 
and  received  it.  And  now  half  of  them  had  got  out  of  the 
gates,  and  the  others  in  succession  were  marching  in  order, 
as  they  went  down  each  to  his  own  post,  when  the  Roman  con- 
sul, before  the  enemy's  line,  supported  by  their  entire  strength, 
could  get  into  close  order,  advanced  upon  them ;  and  having 
attacked  them  before  they  were  all  as  yet  led  forth,  and  before 

1  The  misfortunes  of  the  previous  campaign  were  supposed  to  exert 
an  influence  on  the  present  one. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  449]  BATTLE   WITH   THE  VOLSCIANS  217 

those,  who  were,  had  their  lines  properly  drawn  out,  he  fell 
upon  them,  a  crowd  almost  beginning  to  waver,  as  they  ran 
from  one  place  to  another,  and  gazed  around  upon  themselves, 
and  looked  eagerly  for  their  friends,  the  shouts  and  violent 
attack  adding  to  the  already  panic-stricken  condition  of  their 
minds.  The  enemy  at  first  gave  way;  then,  having  rallied 
their  spirits,  when  their  generals  on  every  side  reproachfully 
asked  them,  whether  they  intended  to  yield  to  vanquished  foes, 
the  battle  was  restored. 

On  the  other  side,  the  consul  desired  the  Romans  to  re- 
member that  on  that  day,  for  the  first  time,  they  fought  as 
free  men  in  defence  of  Rome,  now  a  free  city.  That  it  was  for 
themselves  they  were  about  to  conquer,  not  to  become,  when 
victorious,  the  prize  of  the  decemvirs.  That  it  was  not 
under  the  command  of  Appius  that  operations  were  being 
conducted,  but  under  their  consul  Valerius,  descended  from 
the  liberators  of  the  Roman  people,  himself  their  liberator. 
Let  them  show  that  in  former  battles  it  had  been  the  fault  of 
the  generals  and  not  of  the  soldiers,  that  they  did  not  conquer. 
That  it  was  shameful  to  have  exhibited  more  courage  against 
their  own  countrymen  than  against  their  enemies,  and  to  have 
dreaded  slavery  more  at  home  than  abroad.  That  Verginia 
was  the  only  person  whose  chastity  had  been  in  danger  in 
time  of  peace :  that  Appius  had  been  the  only  citizen  of  dan- 
gerous lust.  But  if  the  fortune  of  war  should  turn  against 
them,  the  children  of  all  would  be  in  danger  from  so  many 
thousands  of  enemies :  that  he  was  unwilling  to  forebode  what 
neither  Jupiter  nor  their  father  Mars  would  be  likely  to  suffer 
to  befall  a  city  built  under  such  auspices.  He  reminded  them 
of  the  Aventine  and  the  Sacred  Mount ;  that  they  should  bring 
back  dominion  unimpaired  to  that  spot,  where  their  liberty  had 
been  won  but  a  few  months  before :  and  that  they  should  show 
that  the  Roman  soldiers  retained  the  same  disposition  after  the 
expulsion  of  the  decemvirs,  as  they  had  possessed  before  they 
were  appointed,  and  that  the  valour  of  the  Roman  people  had 
not  deteriorated  after  the  laws  had  been  equalized.  After  he 
uttered  these  words  among  the  battalions  of  the  infantry,  he 
hurried  from  them  to  the  cavalry.  "  Come,  young  men,"  said 
he,  "  show  yourselves  superior  to  the  infantry  in  valour,  as  you 
already  are  their  superiors  in  honour  and  in  rank.  The  in- 
fantry at  the  first  onset  have  made  the  enemy  give  way ;  now 
that  they  have  given  way,  do  you  give  reins  to  your  horses 
and  drive  them  from  the  field.  They  will  not  stand  your 
charge:  even  now  they  rather  hesitate  than  resist."  They 
spurred  on  their  horses,  and  charged  at  full  speed  against  the 


2i8  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.449 

enemy,  who  were  already  thrown  into  confusion  by  the  at- 
tack of  the  infantry:  and  having  broken  through  the  ranks, 
some  dashing  on  to  the  rear  of  their  line,  others  wheeling 
about  in  the  open  space  from  the  flanks,  turned  most  of  them 
away  from  the  camp  as  they  were  now  flying  in  all  directions, 
and  by  riding  beyond  them  headed  them  off.  The  line  of 
infantry,  the  consul  himself,  and  the  whole  onset  of  the  bat- 
tle was  borne  toward  the  camp,  and  having  taken  it  with 
considerable  slaughter,  he  got  possession  of  still  more  con- 
siderable booty.  The  fame  of  this  battle,  carried  not  only  to 
the  city,  but  to  the  other  army  also  in  Sabine  territory,  was 
welcomed  in  the  city  with  public  rejoicing;  in  the  camp,  it  in- 
spirited the  soldiers  to  emulate  such  glory.  Horatius,  by 
training  them  in  sallies,  and  making  trial  of  them  in  slight  skir- 
mishes, had  accustomed  them  to  trust  in  themselves  rather 
than  remember  the  ignominy  incurred  under  the  command  of 
the  decemvirs,  and  these  trifling  engagements  had  greatly  con- 
tributed to  the  successful  consummation  of  their  hopes.  The 
Sabines,  elated  at  their  success  in  the  preceding  year,  ceased 
not  to  provoke  and  urge  them  to  fight,  constantly  asking  why 
they  wasted  time,  sallying  forth  in  small  numbers  and  return- 
ing like  marauders,  and  why  they  distributed  the  issue  of  a 
single  war  over  a  number  of  engagements,  and  those  of  no  im- 
portance? Why  did  they  not  meet  them  in  the  field,  and  in- 
trust to  fortune  the  decision  of  the  matter  once  and  for  all  ? 

Besides  that  they  had  already  of  themselves  recovered  suffi- 
cient courage,  the  Romans  were  fired  with  exasperation  at 
the  thought  that  the  other  army  would  soon  return  victorious 
to  the  city ;  that  the  enemy  were  now  wantonly  affronting  them 
with  insolence :  when,  moreover,  would  they  be  a  match  for 
the  enemy,  if  they  were  not  so  then?  When  the  consul  as- 
certained that  the  soldiers  loudly  expressed  these  sentiments 
in  the  camp,  having  summoned  an  assembly,  he  spoke  as  fol- 
lows :  "  How  matters  have  fared  in  Algidum,  I  suppose  that 
you,  soldiers,  have  already  heard.  As  became  the  army  of 
the  free  people  to  behave,  so  have  they  behaved ;  through  the 
good  judgment  of  my  colleague,  and  the  valour  of  the  soldiers, 
the  victory  has  been  gained.  For  my  part,  I  shall  display  the 
same  judgment  and  determination  as  you  yourselves,  O  sol- 
diers, display.  The  war  may  either  be  prolonged  with  advan- 
tage, or  be  brought  to  a  speedy  conclusion.  If  it  is  to  be 
prolonged,  I  shall  take  care,  by  employing  the  same  method 
of  warfare  with  which  I  have  begun,  that  your  hopes  and 
your  valour  may  increase  every  day.  If  you  have  now  suffi- 
cient courage,  and  it  is  your  wish  that  the  matter  be  decided, 


B.  C.  449]  DEFEAT  OF  THE  SABINES  219 

come,  raise  here  a  shout  such  as  you  will  raise  in  the  field  of 
battle,  in  token  both  of  your  wishes  and  your  valour."  When 
the  shout  was  raised  with  great  alacrity,  he  assured  them  that 
he  would  comply  with  their  wishes — and  so  might  Heaven 
prosper  it — and  lead  them  next  day  into  the  field.  The  re- 
mainder of  the  day  was  spent  in  getting  ready  their  arms.  On 
the  following  day,  as  soon  as  the  Sabines  saw  the  Roman 
army  being  drawn  up  in  order  of  battle,  they  too,  having  long 
since  been  eager  for  the  encounter,  advanced.  The  battle  was 
one  such  as  would  be  fought  between  two  armies  who  both 
had  confidence  in  themselves,  the  one  on  account  of  its  long- 
standing and  unbroken  career  of  glory,  the  other  recently 
elated  by  its  unusual  success.  The  Sabines  aided  their 
strength  also  by  stratagem ;  for,  having  formed  a  line  equal 
to  that  of  the  Romans,  they  kept  two  thousand  men  in  reserve, 
to  make  an  attack  on  the  left  wing  of  the  Romans  in  the  heat 
of  the  battle.  When  these,  by  an  attack  in  flank,  were  on  the 
point  of  overpowering  that  wing,  now  almost  surrounded, 
about  six  hundred  of  the  cavalry  of  two  legions  leaped  down 
from  their  horses,  and,  as  their  men  were  giving  way,  rushed 
forward  in  front,  and  at  the  same  time  both  opposed  the  ad- 
vance of  the  enemy,  and  roused  the  courage  of  the  infantry, 
first  by  sharing  the  danger  equally  with  them,  and  then  by 
arousing  in  them  a  sense  of  shame.  It  was  a  matter  of  shame 
that  the  cavalry  should  fight  in  their  own  proper  fashion  and 
in  that  of  others,  and  that  the  infantry  should  not  be  equal  to 
the  cavalry  even  when  dismounted.1 

They  marched  therefore  to  the  fight,  which  had  been  sus- 
pended on  their  part,  and  endeavoured  to  regain  the  ground 
which  they  had  lost,  and  in  a  moment  not  only  was  the  battle 
restored,  but  one  of  the  wings  of  the  Sabines  gave  way.  The 
cavalry,  protected  between  the  ranks  of  the  infantry ,  remounted 
their  horses ;  they  then  galloped  across  to  the  other  division 
to  announce  their  success  to  their  party ;  at  the  same  time  also 
they  charged  the  enemy,  now  disheartened  by  the  discomfiture 
of  their  stronger  wing.  The  valour  of  none  shone  forth  more 
conspicuous  in  that  battle.  The  consul  provided  for  all  emer- 
gencies ;  he  applauded  the  brave,  rebuked  wherever  the  battle 
seemed  to  slacken.  When  reproved,  they  displayed  imme- 
diately the  deeds  of  brave  men ;  and  a  sense  of  shame  stimu- 
lated these,  as  much  as  praises  the  others.  The  shout  being 
raised  anew,  all  together  making  a  united  effort,  drove  the  ene- 
my back ;  nor  could  the  Roman  attack  be  any  longer  resisted. 

1  The  cavalry  at  this  period  wore  no  defensive  armour,  and  carried 
only  an  ox-hide  buckler  and  a  light  lance. — D.  O. 


220  LIVY'S   ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  C.  449 

The  Sabines,  driven  in  every  direction  through  the  country, 
left  their  camp  behind  them  for  the  enemy  to  plunder.  There 
the  Romans  recovered  the  effects,  not  of  the  allies,  as  at  Algi- 
dum,  but  their  own  property,  which  had  been  lost  by  the  dev- 
astations of  their  lands.  For  this  double  victory,  gained  in 
two  battles,  in  two  different  places,  the  senate  in  a  niggardly 
spirit  merely  decreed  thanksgivings  in  the  name  of  the  consuls 
for  one  day  only.  The  people  went,  however,  on  the  second 
day  also,  in  great  numbers  of  their  own  accord  to  offer  thanks- 
giving; and  this  unauthorized  and  popular  thanksgiving,  ow- 
ing to  their  zeal,  was  even  better  attended.  The  consuls  by 
agreement  came  to  the  city  within  the  same  two  days,  and 
summoned  the  senate  to  the  Campius  Martius.1  When  they 
were  there  relating  the  services  performed  by  themselves,  the 
chiefs  of  the  patricians  complained  that  the  senate  was  design- 
edly convened  among  the  soldiers  for  the  purpose  of  intimida- 
tion. The  consuls,  therefore,  that  there  might  be  no  room  for 
such  a  charge,  called  away  the  senate  to  the  Flaminian  mead- 
ows, where  the  Temple  of  Apollo  now  is  (even  then  it  was  called 
the  Apollinare).  There,  when  a  triumph  was  refused  by  a 
large  majority  of  the  patricians,  Lucius  Icilius,  tribune  of  the 
commons,  brought  a  proposition  before  the  people  regarding 
the  triumph  of  the  consuls,  many  persons  coming  forward  to 
argue  against  the  measure,  but  in  particular  Gaius  Claudius, 
who  exclaimed,  that  it  was  over  the  senate,  not  over  the  enemy, 
that  the  consuls  wished  to  triumph ;  and  that  it  was  intended 
as  a  return  for  a  private  service  to  a  tribune,  and  not  as  an 
honour  due  to  valour.  That  never  before  had  the  matter  of 
a  triumph  been  managed  through  the  people;  but  that  the 
consideration  of  that  honour  and  the  disposal  of  it,  had  al- 
ways rested  with  the  senate;  that  not  even  the  kings  had 
infringed  on  the  majesty  of  this  most  august  body.  The  trib- 
unes should  not  so  occupy  every  department  with  their  own  au- 
thority, as  to  allow  the  existence  of  no  public  council ;  that  the 
state  would  be  free,  and  the  laws  equalized  by  these  means 
only,  if  each  order  retained  its  own  rights  and  its  own  dig- 
nity. After  much  had  been  said  by  the  other  senior  patricians 
also  to  the  same  purpose,  all  the  tribes  approved  the  proposi- 
tion. Then  for  the  first  time  a  triumph  was  celebrated  by 
order  of  the  people,  without  the  authority  of  the  senate. 

This  victory  of  the  tribunes  and  people  was  well-nigh  ter- 
minating in  an  extravagance  by  no  means  salutary,  a  con- 
spiracy being  formed  among  the  tribunes  that  the  same  trib- 

1  A  victorious  general  who  had  entered  the  city  could  not  afterward 
triumph. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  449]  ELECTIONS    HELD  221 

unes  might  be  re-elected,  and,  in  order  that  their  own  ambition 
might  be  the  less  conspicuous,  that  the  consuls  also  might 
have  their  office  prolonged.  They  pleaded,  in  excuse,  the 
combination  of  the  patricians  by  which  the  privileges  of  the 
commons  were  attempted  to  be  undermined  by  the  affronts 
of  the  consuls.  What  would  be  the  consequence,  when  the 
laws  were  as  yet  not  firmly  established,  if  they  attacked  the 
new  tribunes  through  consuls  of  their  own  party?  Men  like 
Horatius  and  Valerius  would  not  always  be  consuls,  who 
would  regard  their  own  interests  as  secondary  after  the  liberty 
of  the  people.  By  some  concurrence  of  circumstances,  use- 
ful in  view  of  the  situation,  it  fell  by  lot  to  Marcus  Duillius  be- 
fore all  others  to  preside  at  the  elections,  a  man  of  prudence, 
and  who  perceived  the  storm  of  public  odium  that  was  hang- 
ing over  them  from  the  continuance  of  their  office.  And  when 
he  declared  that  he  would  take  no  account  of  any  of  the  for- 
mer tribunes,  and  his  colleagues  struggled  to  get  him  to  allow 
the  tribes  to  vote  independently,  or  to  give  up  the  office  of  pre- 
siding at  the  elections,  which  he  held  by  lot,  to  his  colleagues, 
who  would  hold  the  elections  according  to  law  rather  than 
according  to  the  pleasure  of  the  patricians;  a  contention  being 
now  excited,  when  Duillius  had  sent  for  the  consuls  to  his  seat 
and  asked  them  what  they  contemplated  doing  with  respect 
to  the  consular  elections,  and  they  answered  that  they  would 
appoint  new  consuls ;  then,  having  secured  popular  supporters 
of  a  measure  by  no  means  popular,  he  proceeded  with  them 
into  the  assembly.  There  the  consuls  were  brought  forward 
before  the  people,  and  asked  what  they  would  do  if  the  Ro- 
man people  mindful  of  their  liberty  recovered  at  home  through 
them,  mindful  also  of  their  services  in  war,  should  again  elect 
them  consuls :  and  when  they  in  no  way  changed  their  opin- 
ions, he  held  the  election,  after  eulogizing  the  consuls,  because 
they  persevered  to  the  last  in  being  unlike  the  decemvirs ;  and 
five  tribunes  of  the  people  having  been  elected,  when,  through 
the  zealous  exertions  of  the  nine  tribunes  who  openly  pressed 
their  canvass,  the  other  candidates  could  not  make  up  the  re- 
quired number  of  tribes,  he  dismissed  the  assembly;  nor  did 
he  hold  one  afterward  for  the  purpose  of  an  election.  He 
said  that  the  law  had  been  satisfied,  which,  without  any  num- 
ber being  anywhere  specified,  only  enacted  that  tribunes 
who  had  been  elected  should  be  left  to  choose  their  colleagues 
and  confirmed  those  chosen  by  them.  He  then  went  on  to 
recite  the  formula  of  the  law,  in  which  it  was  laid  down :  "  If 
I  shall  propose  for  election  ten  tribunes  of  the  commons,  if 
from  any  cause  you  shall  elect  this  day  less  than  ten  tribunes 


222  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  449-447 

of  the  people,  then  that  those  whom  they  may  have  chosen  as 
colleagues  for  themselves,  that  these,  I  say,  be  legitimate  trib- 
unes of  the  people  on  the  same  conditions  as  those  whom 
you  shall  on  this  day  have  elected  tribunes  of  the  people." 
When  Duillius  persevered  to  the  last,  stating  that  the  republic 
could  not  have  fifteen  tribunes  of  the  people,  having  baffled  the 
ambition  of  his  colleagues,  he  resigned  office,  equally  approved 
of  by  patricians  and  commons. 

The  new  tribunes  of  the  people,  in  electing  their  colleagues, 
endeavoured  to  gratify  the  wishes  of  the  patricians ;  they  even 
elected  two  who  were  patricians,1  and  men  of  consular  rank, 
Spurius  Tarpeius  and  Aulus  Aternius.  The  consuls  elected, 
Spurius  Herminius,  Titus  Verginius  Caelimontanus,  not  being 
specially  inclined  to  the  cause  either  of  the  patricians  or  com- 
mons, had  perfect  tranquillity  both  at  home  and  abroad.  Lu- 
cius Trebonius,  tribune  of  the  commons,  incensed  against  the 
patricians,  because,  as  he  said,  he  had  been  imposed  on  by  them 
in  the  matter  of  choosing  tribunes,  and  betrayed  by  his  col- 
leagues, brought  forward  a  proposal,  that  whoever  proposed 
the  election  of  tribunes  of  the  people  before  the  commons, 
should  go  on  taking  the  votes,  until  he  elected  ten  tribunes  of 
the  people ;  and  he  spent  his  tribuneship  in  worrying  the  patri- 
cians, whence  the  surname  of  Asper  was  given  him.  Next 
Marcus  Geganius  Macerinus,  and  Gaius  Julius,  being  elected 
consuls,  quieted  some  disputes  that  had  arisen  between  the 
tribunes  and  the  youth  of  the  nobility,  without  displaying  any 
harshness  against  that  power,  and  at  the  same  time  preserving 
the  dignity  of  the  patricians.  By  proclaiming  a  levy  for  the 
war  against  the  Volscians  and  yEquans,  they  kept  the  people 
from  riots  by  keeping  matters  in  abeyance,  affirming  that 
everything  was  also  quiet  abroad,  owing  to  the  harmony  in 
the  city,  and  that  it  was  only  through  civil  discord  that  foreign 
foes  took  courage.  Their  anxiety  for  peace  abroad  was  also 
the  cause  of  harmony  at  home.  But  notwithstanding,  the  one 
order  ever  attacked  the  moderation  of  the  other.  Acts  of  in- 
justice began  to  be  committed  by  the  younger  patricians  on 
the  commons,  although  the  latter  kept  perfectly  quiet.  Where 
the  tribunes  assisted  the  more  humble,  in  the  first  place  it  ac- 
complished little:  and  thereafter  they  did  not  even  themselves 
escape  ill-treatment:  particularly  in  the  latter  months,  when 
injustice  was  committed  through  the  combinations  among  the 
more  powerful,  and  the  power  of  the  office  became  consid- 
erably weaker  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year.  And  now  the 

1  It  was  first  necessary  for  these  to  be  adopted  into  plebeian  families, 
as  none  but  plebeians  were  eligible. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  447-446]     DISSATISFACTION   IN  THE  CITY  223 

commons  placed  some  hopes  in  the  tribuneship,  if  only  they 
could  get  tribunes  like  Icilius :  for  the  last  two  years  they  de- 
clared that  they  had  only  had  mere  names.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  elder  members  of  the  patrician  order,  though  they 
considered  their  young  men  to  be  too  overbearing,  yet  pre- 
ferred, if  bounds  were  to  be  exceeded,  that  a  superabundance 
of  spirit  should  be  exhibited  by  their  own  order  rather  than 
by  their  adversaries.  So  difficult  a  thing  is  moderation  in 
maintaining  liberty,  while  every  one,  by  pretending  to  desire 
equality,  exalts  himself  in  such  a  manner  as  to  put  down  an- 
other, and  men,  by  their  very  precautions  against  fear,  cause 
themselves  to  become  objects  of  dread:  and  we  saddle  on 
others  injustice  repudiated  on  our  own  account,  as  if  it 
were  absolutely  necessary  either  to  commit  injustice  or  to 
submit  to  it. 

Titus  Quinctius  Capitolinus  for  the  fourth  time  and  Agrip- 
pa  Furius  being  then  elected  consuls,  found  neither  disturb- 
ance at  home  nor  war  abroad ;  both,  however,  were  impend- 
ing. The  discord  of  the  citizens  could  now  no  longer  be 
checked,  both  tribunes  and  commons  being  exasperated 
against  the  patricians,  while,  if  a  day  of  trial  was  appointed  for 
any  of  the  nobility,  it  always  embroiled  the  assemblies  in  new 
struggles.  On  the  first  report  of  these  the  yEquans  and  Vol- 
scians,  as  if  they  had  received  a  signal,  took  up  arms;  also 
because  their  leaders,  eager  for  plunder,  had  persuaded  them 
that  the  levy  proclaimed  two  years  previously  could  not  be 
proceeded  with,  as  the  commons  now  refused  obedience  to 
military  authority:  that  for  that  reason  no  armies  had  been 
sent  against  them;  that  military  discipline  was  subverted  by 
licentiousness,  and  that  Rome  was  no  longer  considered  a  com- 
mon country  for  its  citizens ;  that  whatever  resentment  and  ani- 
mosity they  might  have  entertained  against  foreigners,  was 
now  directed  against  themselves ;  that  now  an  opportunity 
offered  itself  for  destroying  wolves  blinded  by  intestine  rage. 
Having  united  their  forces,  they  first  utterly  laid  waste  the 
Latin  territory :  when  none  met  them  to  avenge  the  wrong, 
then  indeed,  to  the  great  exultation  of  the  advisers  of  the 
war,  they  approached  the  very  walls  of  Rome,  carrying  their 
depredations  into  the  district  around  the  Esquiline  gate,1 
pointing  out  to  the  city  in  mocking  insult  the  devastation  of 
the  land.  When  they  marched  back  thence  to  Corbio  unmo- 
lested, and  driving  their  booty  before  them,  Quinctius  the 
consul  summoned  the  people  to  an  assembly. 

There  I  find  that  he  spoke  to  this  effect :  "  Though  I  am 
1  It  stood  about  where  the  Arch  of  Gallienus  now  stands. — D.  O. 


224  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [8.0.446 

conscious  to  myself  of  no  fault,  Quirites,  yet  it  is  with  the 
greatest  shame  I  have  come  forward  to  your  assembly.  To 
think  that  you  should  know  this,  that  this  should  be  handed 
down  on  record  to  posterity,  that  the  yEquans  and  Volscians, 
a  short  time  since  scarcely  a  match  for  the  Hernicans,  have 
with  impunity  come  with  arms  in  their  hands  to  the  walls  of 
Rome,  in  the  fourth  consulate  of  Titus  Quinctius !  Had  I 
known  that  this  disgrace  was  reserved  for  this  year,  above  all 
others,  though  we  have  now  long  been  living  in  such  a  man- 
ner, and  such  is  the  state  of  affairs,  that  my  mind  can  forebode 
nothing  good,  I  would  have  avoided  this  honour  either  by  ex- 
ile or  by  death,  if  there  had  been  no  other  means  of  escaping  it. 
Then,  if  men  of  courage  had  held  those  arms,  which  were  at 
our  gates,  Rome  could  have  been  taken  during  my  consulate. 
I  have  had  sufficient  honours,  enough  and  more  than  enough 
of  life  :  I  ought  to  have  died  in  my  third  consulate.  Whom,  I 
pray,  did  these  most  dastardly  enemies  despise?  us,  consuls, 
or  you,  Quirites?  If  the  fault  lies  in  us,  take  away  the  com- 
mand from  those  who  are  unworthy  of  it ;  and,  if  that  is  not 
enough,  further  inflict  punishment  on  us.  If  the  fault  is  yours, 
may  there  be  none  of  gods  or  men  to  punish  your  offences : 
do  you  yourselves  only  repent  of  them.  It  is  not  your  cow- 
ardice they  have  despised,  nor  their  own  valour  that  they  have 
put  their  trust  in :  having  been  so  often  routed  and  put  to 
flight,  stripped  of  their  camp,  mulcted  in  their  land,  sent  under 
the  yoke,  they  know  both  themselves  and  you.  It  is  the  dis- 
cord among  the  several  orders  that  is  the  curse  of  this  city, 
the  contests  between  the  patricians  and  commons.  While  we 
have  neither  bounds  in  the  pursuit  of  power,  nor  you  in  that 
of  liberty,  while  you  are  wearied  of  patrician,  we  of  plebeian 
magistrates,  they  have  taken  courage.  In  the  name  of  Heaven, 
what  would  you  have?  You  desired  tribunes  of  the  com- 
mons ;  we  granted  them  for  the  sake  of  concord.  You  longed 
for  decemvirs ;  we  suffered  them  to  be  created.  You  became 
weary  of  decemvirs ;  we  compelled  them  to  resign  office. 
Your  resentment  against  these  same  persons  when  they  be- 
came private  citizens  still  continuing,  we  suffered  men  of  the 
highest  family  and  rank  to  die  or  go  into  exile.  You  wished  a 
second  time  to  create  tribunes  of  the  commons ;  you  created 
them.  You  wished  to  elect  consuls  attached  to  your  party: 
and,  although  we  saw  that  it  was  unjust  to  the  patricians,  we 
have  even  resigned  ourselves  to  see  a  patrician  magistracy 
conceded  as  an  offering  to  the  people.  The  aid  of  tribunes, 
right  of  appeal  to  the  people,  the  acts  of  the  commons  made 
binding  on  the  patricians  under  the  pretext  of  equalizing  the 


B.C.  446]  SPEECH   OF   QUINCTIUS  225 

laws,  the  subversion  of  our  privileges,  we  have  endured  and 
still  endure.  What  end  is  there  to  be  to  our  dissensions? 
when  shall  it  be  allowed  us  to  have  a  united  city,  one  common 
country?  We,  when  defeated,  submit  with  greater  resigna- 
tion than  you  when  victorious.  Is  it  enough  for  you,  that  you 
are  objects  of  terror  to  us  ?  The  Aventine  is  taken  against  us : 
against  us  the  Sacred  Mount  is  seized.  When  the  Esquiline 
was  almost  taken  by  the  enemy,  no  one  defended  it,  and  when 
the  Volscian  foe  was  scaling  the  rampart,  no  one  drove  him 
off:  it  is  against  us  you  behave  like  men,  against  us  you  are 
armed. 

"  Come,  when  you  have  blockaded  the  senate-house  here, 
and  have  made  the  forum  the  seat  of  war,  and  filled  the  prison 
with  the  leading  men  of  the  state,  march  forth  through  the 
Esquiline  gate,  with  that  same  determined  spirit ;  or,  if  you  do 
not  even  venture  thus  far,  behold  from  your  walls  your  lands 
laid  waste  with  fire  and  sword,  booty  driven  off,  houses  set  on 
fire  in  every  direction  and  smoking.  But,  I  may  be  told,  it  is 
only  the  public  weal  that  is  in  a  worse  condition  through  this: 
the  land  is  burned,  the  city  is  besieged,  the  glory  of  the  war  rests 
with  the  enemy.  What  in  the  name  of  Heaven — what  is  the 
state  of  your  own  private  affairs  ?  even  now  to  each  of  you  his 
own  private  losses  from  the  country  will  be  announced.  What, 
pray,  is  there  at  home,  whence  you  can  recruit  them  ?  Will  the 
tribunes  restore  and  re-establish  what  you  have  lost?  Of 
sound  and  words  they  will  heap  on  you  as  much  as  you  please, 
and  of  charges  against  the  leading  men,  laws  one  after  another, 
and  public  meetings.  But  from  these  meetings  never  has  one 
of  you  returned  home  more  increased  in  substance  or  in  for- 
tune. Has  any  one  ever  brought  back  to  his  wife  and  children 
aught  save  hatred,  quarrels,  grudges  public  and  private,  from 
which  you  may  ever  be  protected,  not  by  your  own  valour  and 
integrity,  but  by  the  aid  of  others  ?  But,  by  Hercules !  when 
you  served  under  the  command  of  us  consuls,  not  under  trib- 
unes, in  the  camp  and  not  in  the  forum,  and  the  enemy  trem- 
bled at  your  shout  in  the  field  of  battle,  not  the  Roman  patri- 
cians in  the  assembly,  having  gained  booty  and  taken  land 
from  the  enemy,  loaded  with  wealth  and  glory,  both  public  and 
private,  you  used  to  return  home  in  triumph  to  your  household 
gods :  now  you  allow  the  enemy  to  go  off  laden  with  your 
property.  Continue  fast  bound  to  your  assemblies,  live  in  the 
forum ;  the  necessity  of  taking  the  field,  which  you  strive  to 
escape,  still  follows  you.  It  was  hard  on  you  to  march  against 
the  ^Equans  and  the  Volscians :  the  war  is  at  your  gates :  if 
it  is  not  driven  from  thence,  it  will  soon  be  within  your  walls, 
15 


226  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  446 

and  will  scale  the  citadel  and  Capitol,  and  follow  you  into  your 
very  houses.  Two  years  ago  the  senate  ordered  a  levy  to  be 
held,  and  an  army  to  be  marched  out  to  Algidum ;  yet  we  sit 
down  listless  at  home,  quarrelling  with  each  other  like  women, 
delighting  in  present  peace,  and  not  seeing  that  after  that 
short-lived  inactivity  war  will  return  with  interest.  That 
there  are  other  topics  more  pleasing  than  these,  I  well  know ; 
but  even  though  my  own  mind  did  not  prompt  me  to  it,  neces- 
sity obliges  me  to  speak  the  truth  rather  than  what  is  pleas- 
ing. I  would  indeed  like  to  meet  with  your  approval,  Qui- 
rites;  but  I  am  much  more  anxious  that  you  should  be 
preserved,  whatever  sentiments  you  shall  entertain  toward  me. 
It  has  been  so  ordained  by  nature,  that  he  who  addresses  a 
crowd  for  his  own  private  interest,  is  more  welcome  than  the 
man  whose  mind  has  nothing  in  view  but  the  public  interest : 
unless  perhaps  you  suppose  that  those  public  sycophants, 
those  flatterers  of  the  commons,  who  neither  suffer  you  to 
take  up  arms  nor  to  live  in  peace,  excite  and  work  you  up  for 
your  own  interests.  When  excited,  you  are  to  them  sources 
either  of  position  or  of  profit :  and,  because,  when  the  orders 
are  in  accord,  they  see  that  they  themselves  are  of  no  impor- 
tance in  anything,  they  prefer  to  be  leaders  of  a  bad  cause,  of 
tumults  and  sedition,  rather  than  of  no  cause  at  all.  If  you 
can  at  last  become  wearied  of  all  this,  and  if  you  are  willing 
to  resume  the  habits  practised  by  your  forefathers  of  old,  and 
formerly  by  yourselves,  in  place  of  these  new  ones,  I  am  ready 
to  submit  to  any  punishment,  if  I  do  not  in  a  few  days  rout  and 
put  to  flight,  and  strip  of  their  camp  those  devastators  of  our 
lands,  and  transfer  from  our  gates  and  walls  to  their  cities  this 
terror  of  war,  by  which  you  are  now  thrown  into  conster- 
nation." 

Scarcely  ever  was  the  speech  of  a  popular  tribune  more 
acceptable  to  the  commons  than  this  of  a  most  austere  consul  on 
that  occasion.  The  young  men  also,  who,  during  such  alarms, 
had  been  accustomed  to  employ  the  refusal  to  enlist  as  the 
sharpest  weapon  against  the  patricians,  began  to  turn  their 
attention  to  war  and  arms :  and  the  flight  of  the  rustics,  and 
those  who  had  been  robbed  and  wounded  in  the  country,  by 
announcing  events  more  revolting  even  than  what  was  before 
their  eyes,  filled  the  whole  city  with  exasperation.  When  they 
came  into  the  senate,  there  all,  turning  to  Quinctius,  looked 
upon  him  as  the  only  champion  of  the  majesty  of  Rome :  and 
the  leading  senators  declared  that  his  harangue  was  worthy 
of  the  consular  authority,  worthy  of  so  many  consulships  for- 
merly borne  by  him,  worthy  of  his  whole  life,  full  of  honours 


B.  C.  446]  THE   ARMY   MARCHES  227 

frequently  enjoyed,  more  frequently  deserved.  That  other 
consuls  had  either  flattered  the  commons  by  betraying  the 
dignity  of  the  patricians,  or  by  harshly  maintaining  the  rights 
of  their  order,  had  rendered  the  multitude  more  exasperated 
by  their  efforts  to  subdue  them :  that  Titus  Quinctius  had  de- 
livered a  speech  mindful  of  the  dignity  of  the  patricians,  of  the 
concord  of  the  different  orders,  and  above  all,  of  the  needs  of 
the  times.  They  entreated  him  and  his  colleague  to  assume 
the  management  of  the  commonwealth;  they  entreated  the 
tribunes,  by  acting  in  concert  with  the  consuls,  to  join  in  driv- 
ing back  the  war  from  the  city  and  the  walls,  and  to  induce 
the  commons  to  be  obedient  to  the  senate  at  so  perilous  a 
conjuncture :  declaring  that,  their  lands  being  devastated,  and 
their  city  in  a  manner  besieged,  their  common  country  ap- 
pealed to  them  as  tribunes,  and  implored  their  aid.  By  uni- 
versal consent  the  levy  was  decreed  and  held.  When  the  con- 
suls gave  public  notice  that  there  was  no  time  for  considering 
claims  for  exemption ;  that  all  the  young  men  should  attend 
on  the  following  morning  at  dawn  in  the  Campus  Martius; 
that  when  the  war  was  over,  they  would  afford  time  for  in- 
quiring into  the  excuses  of  those  who  had  not  given  in  their 
names ;  that  the  man  should  be  held  as  a  deserter,  whose  ex- 
cuse they  found  unsatisfactory ;  all  the  youth  attended  on  the 
following  day.  The  cohorts  l  chose  each  their  centurions :  two 
senators  were  placed  at  the  head  of  each  cohort.  We  have 
read  that  all  these  measures  were  carried  out  with  such  ex- 
pedition that  the  standards,  which  had  been  brought  forth 
from  the  treasury  on  that  very  day  by  the  quaestors  and  con- 
veyed to  the  Campus,  started  from  thence  at  the  fourth  hour ; 
and  the  newly-raised  army  halted  at  the  tenth  milestone,  fol- 
lowed only  by  a  few  cohorts  of  veteran  soldiers  as  volunteers. 
The  following  day  brought  the  enemy  within  sight,  and  camp 
was  joined  to  camp  near  Corbio.  On  the  third  day,  when  re- 
sentment urged  on  the  Romans,  and  a  consciousness  of  guilt 
for  having  so  often  rebelled  and  a  feeling  of  despair,  the  others, 
there  was  no  delay  in  coming  to  an  engagement. 

In  the  Roman  army,  though  the  two  consuls  were  invested 
with  equal  authority,  the  supreme  command  was,  by  the  con- 
cession of  Agrippa,  resigned  to  his  colleague,  an  arrangement 
most  salutary  in  the  conduct  of  matters  of  great  importance ; 
and  he  who  was  preferred  made  a  polite  return  for  the  ready 
condescension  of  the  other,  who  thus  lowered  himself,  by 
making  him  his  confidant  in  all  his  plans  and  sharing  with 
him  his  honours,  and  by  putting  him  on  an  equality  with  him 
1  Each  legion  was  divided  into  ten  cohorts, — D.  O. 


228  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B:  0.446 

although  he  was  by  no  means  as  capable.  On  the  field  of 
battle  Quinctius  commanded  the  right,  Agrippa  the  left  wing ; 
the  command  of  the  centre  was  intrusted  to  Spurius  Postumius 
Albus,  as  lieutenant-general.  Publius  Sulpicius,  the  other 
lieutenant-general,  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  cavalry.  The 
infantry  on  the  right  wing  fought  with  distinguished  valour, 
while  the  Volscians  offered  a  stout  resistance.  Publius  Sulpi- 
cius with  his  cavalry  broke  through  the  centre  of  the  enemy's 
line ;  and,  though  he  might  have  returned  thence  in  the  same 
way  to  his  own  party,  before  the  enemy  restored  their  broken 
ranks,  it  seemed  more  advisable  to  attack  them  in  the  rear,  and 
in  a  moment,  charging  the  line  in  the  rear,  he  would  have  dis- 
persed the  enemy  by  the  double  attack,  had  not  the  cavalry  of 
the  Volscians  and  yEquans  kept  him  for  some  time  engaged 
by  a  mode  of  fighting  like  his  own.  Then  indeed  Sulpicius 
declared  that  there  was  no  time  for  delay,  crying  out  that  they 
were  surrounded  and  would  be  cut  off  from  their  own  friends, 
unless  they  united  all  their  efforts  and  despatched  the  en- 
gagement with  the  cavalry.  Nor  was  it  enough  to  rout  the 
enemy  without  disabling  them;  they  must  slay  horses  and 
men,  that  none  might  return  to  the  fight  or  renew  the  battle ; 
that  these  could  not  resist  them,  before  whom  a  compact  body 
of  infantry  had  given  way.  His  orders  were  addressed  to  no 
deaf  ears ;  by  a  single  charge  they  routed  the  entire  cavalry, 
dismounted  great  numbers,  and  killed  with  their  javelins  both 
the  riders  and  the  horses.  Thus  ended  the  cavalry  engage- 
ment. Then,  having  attacked  the  enemy's  infantry,  they  sent 
an  account  to  the  consuls  of  what  had  been  done,  where  the 
enemy's  line  was  already  giving  way.  The  news  both  gave 
fresh  courage  to  the  Romans  who  were  now  gaining  the  day, 
and  dismayed  the  ^Equans  who  were  beginning  to  give  way. 
They  first  began  to  be  beaten  in  the  centre,  where  the  furious 
charge  of  the  cavalry  had  broken  their  ranks.  Then  the  left 
wing  began  to  lose  ground  before  the  consul  Quinctius;  the 
contest  was  most  obstinate  on  the  right.  Then  Agrippa,  in 
the  vigour  of  his  youth  and  strength,  seeing  matters  going 
more  favourably-  in  every  part  of  the  battle  than  in  his  own 
quarter,  snatched  some  of  the  standards  from  the  standard- 
bearers  and  carried  them  on  himself,  some  even  he  began  to 
throw  into  the  thick  of  the  enemy.1  The  soldiers,  urged  on 
by  the  fear  of  this  disgrace,  attacked  the  enemy ;  thus  the  vic- 
tory was  equalized  in  every  quarter.  News  then  came  from 
Quinctius  that  he,  being  now  victorious,  was  about  to  attack 

1  A  not  unusual  method  of  forcing  the  charge,  as  not  only  military 
honour  but  religious  sentiment  forbade  the  loss  of  the  standards. — D.  O. 


B.  c.  446]  THE  AFFAIR   WITH  ARICIA  229 

the  enemy's  camp ;  that  he  was  unwilling  to  break  into  it,  be- 
fore he  learned  that  they  were  beaten  in  the  left  wing  also.  If 
he  had  routed  the  enemy,  let  him  now  join  him,  that  all  the 
army  together  might  take  possession  of  the  booty.  Agrippa, 
being  victorious,  with  mutual  congratulations  advanced  to- 
ward his  victorious  colleague  and  the  enemy's  camp.  There, 
as  there  were  but  few  to  defend  it,  and  these  were  routed  in  a 
moment,  they  broke  into  the  fortifications  without  a  struggle, 
and  marched  back  the  army,  in  possession  of  abundant  spoil, 
having  recovered  also  their  own  effects,  which  had  been  lost 
by  the  devastation  of  the  lands.  I  have  not  heard  that  they 
either  themselves  demanded  a  triumph,  or  that  one  was  offered 
to  them  by  the  senate ;  nor  is  any  cause  assigned  for  the  hon- 
our being  either  overlooked  or  not  hoped  for.  As  far  as  I  can 
conjecture  at  so  great  a  distance  of  time,  since  a  triumph  had 
been  refused  to  the  consuls  Horatius  and  Valerius,  who,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  victory  over  the  ^quans  and  Volscians,  had 
gained  the  glory  of  having  also  finished  the  Sabine  war,  the 
consuls  were  ashamed  to  demand  a  triumph  for  one  half  of  the 
services  done  by  them,  lest,  even  if  they  should  have  obtained 
it,  regard  might  appear  to  have  been  paid  to  persons  rather 
than  to  merit. 

A  disgraceful  decision  of  the  people  regarding  the  bound- 
aries of  their  allies  marred  the  honourable  victory  obtained 
over  their  enemies.  The  people  of  Aricia  1  and  of  Ardea,  who 
had  frequently  contended  in  arms  concerning  a  disputed  piece 
of  land,  wearied  out  by  many  losses  on  either  side,  appointed 
the  Roman  people  as  arbitrators.  When  they  arrived  to  sup- 
port their  claims,  an  assembly  of  the  people  being  granted 
them  by  the  magistrates,  the  matter  was  debated  with  great 
warmth.  The  witnesses  being  now  produced,  when  it  was 
time  for  the  tribes  to  be  called,  and  for  the  people  to  give  their 
votes,  Publius  Scaptius,  a  plebeian  advanced  in  years,  rose  up 
and  said,  "  Consuls,  if  it  is  permitted  me  to  speak  on  the 
public  interest,  I  will  not  suffer  the  people  to  be  led  into  a 
mistake  in  this  matter."  When  the  consuls  said  that  he,  as 
unworthy  of  attention,  ought  not  to  be  heard,  and,  on  his 
shouting  that  the  public  interest  was  being  betrayed,  ordered 
him  to  be  put  aside,  fie  appealed  to  the  tribunes.  The  trib- 
unes, as  they  are  nearly  always  directed  by  the  multitude 
rather  than  direct  it,  granted  Scaptius  leave  to  say  what  he 
pleased  in  deference  to  the  people,  who  were  anxious  to  hear 
him.  He  then  began :  That  he  was  now  in  his  eighty-third 

1  About  twenty  miles  from  Rome  in  the  Alban  Mountains.     The  vil- 
lage of  Ariccia  occupies  the  site  of  the  ancient  citadel. — D.  O. 


230  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [3.0.446 

year,  and  that  he  had  served  in  that  district  which  was  now  in 
dispute,  not  even  then  a  young  man,  as  he  was  already  serving 
in  his  twentieth  campaign,  when  operations  were  going  on  at 
Corioli.  He  therefore  brought  forward  a  fact  forgotten  by 
length  of  time — one,  however,  deeply  fixed  in  his  memory : 
namely,  that  the  district  now  in  dispute  had  belonged  to  the 
territory  of  Corioli,  and,  after  the  taking  of  Corioli,  it  had  be- 
come by  right  of  war  the  public  property  of  the  Roman  people. 
That  he  was  surprised  how  the  states  of  Ardea  and  Aricia 
could  have  the  face  to  hope  to  deprive  the  Roman  people, 
whom  instead  of  lawful  owners  they  had  made  arbitrators,  of 
a  district  the  right  of  which  they  had  never  claimed  while  the 
state  of  Corioli  existed.  That  he  for  his  part  had  but  a  short 
time  to  live;  he  could  not,  however,  bring  himself,  old  as  he 
now  was,  to  desist  claiming  by  his  voice,  the  only  means  he 
now  had,  a  district  which,  as  a  soldier,  he  had  contributed  to 
acquire,  as  far  as  a  man  could.  That  he  strenuously  advised 
the  people  not  to  ruin  their  own  interest  by  an  idle  feeling  of 
delicacy. 

The  consuls,  when  they  perceived  that  Scaptius  was  lis- 
tened to  not  only  in  silence,  but  even  with  approbation,  calling 
gods  and  men  to  witness,  that  a  disgraceful  enormity  was  be- 
ing committed,  summoned  the  principal  senators :  with  them 
they  went  round  to  the  tribes,  entreated,  that,  as  judges,  they 
would  not  be  guilty  of  a  most  heinous  crime,  with  a  still  worse 
precedent,  by  converting  the  subject  of  dispute  to  their  own 
interest,  more  especially  when,  even  though  it  may  be  lawful 
for  a  judge  to  look  after  his  own  interest,  so  much  would  by 
no  means  be  acquired  by  keeping  the  land,  as  would  be  lost  by 
alienating  the  affections  of  their  allies  by  injustice ;  for  that  the 
loss  of  reputation  and  confidence  was  of  greater  importance 
than  could  be  estimated.  Was  this  the  answer  the  ambassa- 
dors were  to  carry  home ;  was  this  to  go  out  to  the  world ; 
were  their  allies  to  hear  this ;  were  their  enemies  to  hear  it — 
with  what  sorrow  the  one — with  what  joy  the  other?  Could 
they  suppose  that  the  neighbouring  states  would  ascribe  this 
proceeding  to  Scaptius,  an  old  babbler  at  assemblies?  that 
Scaptius  would  be  rendered  distinguished  by  this  statue :  but 
that  the  Roman  people  would  assume  the  character  of  a  cor- 
rupt informer  *  and  appropriator  of  the  claims  of  others.  For 
what  judge  in  a  private  cause  ever  acted  in  such  a  way  as  to 
adjudge  to  himself  the  property  in  dispute?  That  even  Scap- 

1  Quadruplatores  were  public  informers,  so  called  because  they  re- 
ceived a  fourth  part  of  the  fine  imposed  :  also  used  in  a  general  sense  of 
those  who  tried  to  promote  their  interests  by  underhand  means. 


R.C.  446]  THE   AFFAIR  WITH   ARICIA  231 

tius  himself  would  not  act  so,  though  he  had  now  outlived  all 
sense  of  shame.  Thus  the  consuls,  thus  the  senators  ex- 
claimed ;  but  covetousness,  and  Scaptius,  the  adviser  of  that 
covetousness,  had  more  influence.  The  tribes,  when  con- 
vened, decided  that  the  district  was  the  public  property  of  the 
Roman  people.  Nor  can  it  be  denied  that  it  might  have  been 
so,  if  they  had  gone  to  other  judges ;  but,  as  it  is,  the  infamy  of 
the  decision  is  not  in  any  way  diminished  by  the  justice  of  the 
cause :  nor  did  it  appear  more  disgraceful  or  more  repulsive  to 
the  people  of  Aricia  and  of  Ardea,  than  it  did  to  the  Roman 
senate.  The  remainder  of  the  year  continued  free  from  dis- 
turbances both  at  home  and  abroad.1 

1  This  is  one  of  the  best  of  Livy's  books.  The  story  of  Verginia  and 
of  the  deposition  and  punishment  of  the  decemvirs  is  unexcelled  in  his- 
torical narrative. — D.  O. 


BOOK  XXI l 

THE    SECOND    PUNIC   WAR 

I  CLAIM  leave  to  preface  a  portion  of  my  history  by  a  re- 
mark which  most  historians  make  at  the  beginning  of  their 
whole  work.     I  am  about  to  describe  the  most  memorable 
war  ever  waged,  the  war  which  the  Carthaginians,  under 
the   leadership   of   Hannibal,    waged    against   the   people    of 
Rome.2     Never  have  states  or  nations  with  mightier  resources 
met  in  arms,  and  never  had  these  two  peoples  themselves 

1  Books  XXI-XXIV  are  the  translation  of  Alfred  John  Church  and 
William  Jackson  Brodribb,  revised  and  emended  by  Duffield  Osborne. 

2  The  relations  between  Rome  and  Carthage  date  from  a  very  early 
period.     A  treaty  was  concluded  between   the  two  powers  in  B.  c.  509, 
the  year  after  the  expulsion  of  the  kings.     It  provided  that  neither  Ro- 
mans nor  allies  of  Rome  were  to  sail  for  trading  purposes  east  of  the  head- 
land known  as  Apollinis  Promontorium,  now  Cape  Farina,  situated  im- 
mediately to  the  northwest  of  Carthage  ;  that  in  the  part  of  Sicily  subject 
to  Carthage,   Roman  and  Carthaginian  traders  were  to  have  the  same 
rights,  that  the  Cathaginians  were  not  to  occupy  any  fortified  position  in 
Latium,  or  to  do  any  injury  to  any  of  Rome's  subjects  or  allies,  or  indeed 
to  meddle  with  any  Italian  city,  whether  subject  to  Rome  or  not. 

The  provisions  of  this  treaty  imply  that  Carthage  claimed  Sardinia 
and  Libya  as  her  own  territory,  but  only  certain  portions  of  Sicily,  these 
portions  being,  it  would  appear,  the  west  and  northwest  coasts.  It  is 
clear  that  this  great  commercial  city  wished  to  exclude  the  Roman  traders 
from  the  eastern  waters  of  the  Mediterranean.  Equally  anxious  was  Rome 
to  keep  Italy,  though  only  a  portion  of  it  was  actually  under  her  subjec- 
tion, to  herself,  and  to  guard  its  shores  from  those  piratical  raids  to  which 
the  Phoenicians  were  addicted. 

A  second  treaty  was  negotiated  in  B.  c.  347,  with,  on  the  whole,  less 
favourable  conditions  for  Roman  traders.  In  this  treaty  Carthage  did 
not  speak  for  herself  alone,  but  claimed  to  represent  the  Tyrian  peoples 
generally,  and  the  important  city  of  Utica,  also  a  Tyrian  colony.  Rome 
was  to  confine  her  trading  and  piratical  expeditions  within  narrow  limits 
on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  was  to  be  wholly  excluded  from  Sardinia.  As 
to  Sicily,  matters  were  to  be  on  the  footing  of  the  older  treaty.  So  also, 
as  before,  Carthage  was  not  to  meddle  with  Roman  territory  in  Italy ; 
should  her  corsairs  capture  any  town  on  the  Latin  shores  that  was  not 
subject  to  Rome,  the  plunder  and  the  captives  might  be  retained,  but  the 
town  itself  was  to  be  surrendered.  Carthage  was  to  have  no  settlements 
or  possessions  on  the  coasts  of  Italy.  Rome,  on  her  side,  was  to  inflict 

232 


B.  c.  229]  NATURE  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  23$ 

possessed  such  strength  and  endurance.  The  modes  of  war- 
fare with  which  they  encountered  one  another  were  not  un- 
familiar, but  had  been  tested  in  the  first  Punic  war.1  Again, 

no  injury  on  any  town  or  people  on  friendly  terms  with  Carthage.  The 
treaty  was  to  be  binding  on  the  allies  of  the  two  powers. 

Rome's  trade,  as  well  as  her  military  strength,  had,  it  may  be  pre- 
sumed, grown  considerably  in  the  interval  between  the  two  treaties,  and 
Carthage  felt  she  must  guard  the  interests  of  her  own  commerce  by  further 
restrictions,  The  effect  of  this  last  treaty  would  be  to  secure  to  her  the 
largest  and  most  profitable  part  of  the  trade  of  the  Mediterranean. 

A  third  treaty,  concluded  in  B.  c.  279,  at  the  time  of  Pyrrhus's  invasion 
of  Italy,  ratified  the  terms  of  the  two  preceding  treaties,  and  further  pro- 
vided for  a  defensive  alliance  between  Rome  and  Carthage,  the  latter 
power  undertaking  to  put  her  fleet  at  the  service  of  her  ally  for  purposes 
of  transport,  and  even  of  actual  war,  short  of  the  obligation  to  disembark 
troops  on  the  enemy's  territory.  A  record  of  this  treaty,  inscribed  on  a 
brass  tablet,  was  kept  in  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus. — W.  J.  B. 

1  The  first  Punic  war  began  in  B.  c.  264  and  ended  in  B.  c.  241  with 
the  decisive  victory  of  the  Roman  admiral,  Lutatius  Catulus,  at  the 
^Egates  Islands  off  the  west  coast  of  Sicily.  It  was  a  hard-fought  strug- 
gle, glorious,  no  doubt,  for  the  conquerors,  whose  ultimate  triumph  was 
the  reward  of  the  persevering  energy  which  had  created  a  navy,  and 
had  wrested  from  the  mistress  of  the  Mediterranean  her  maritime  supe- 
riority. It  was  clearly  proved  that  in  naval  strength,  and  indeed  in  the 
long  run,  in  material  strength,  Rome  was  superior  to  Carthage.  Rome's 
first  aim  and  object,  for  which  she  counted  no  sacrifice  too  costly,  was 
empire  ;  with  Carthage  it  was  commercial  success  and  wealth.  Rome 
loved  to  fight  with  her  own  citizens  ;  Carthage  must  employ  mercenaries. 
At  the  conclusion  of  the  war  Roman  trade  and  Roman  finance  were  sorely 
crippled,  and  were  probably  in  a  far  worse  plight  than  those  of  her  rival ; 
but  in  the  event  of  a  renewal  of  the  contest  everything  pointed  to  a  simi- 
lar result. 

The  name  of  Hamilcar  Barca,  the  father  of  Hannibal,  first  became 
famous  in  this  war,  and  it  was  through  him  that  negotiations  for  peace 
were  set  on  foot  by  Carthage.  The  terms  exacted  by  Rome  were  such  as 
to  suggest  that  she  did  not  wish  to  prolong  the  struggle.  The  whole  of 
Sicily  was  to  be  given  up  by  the  Carthaginians,  and  also  the  islands  be- 
tween Italy  and  Sicily,  and  they  were  to  restore  without  ransom  all  Ro- 
man prisoners,  to  pay  down  1,000  talents,  and  a  further  sum  of  2,200 
talents  by  ten  annual  instalments,  an  amount  in  all  equivalent  to  about 
$4,000,000  of  our  money,  though  it  should  be  understood  that  when  esti- 
mated in  relation  to  modern  finance  it  really  represented  a  vastly  larger 
sum.  All  Carthaginian  territory,  properly  so  called,  was  to  be  recognised 
as  perfectly  independent  of  Rome,  and  neither  Rome  nor  Carthage  was 
to  enter  into  any  separate  engagement  with  the  allies  of  either  power. 
These  last  conditions  seem  to  have  been  unsatisfactory  to  the  popular 
party  at  Rome,  which  thought  that  after  the  efforts  and  sacrifices  they  had 
made  they  had  a  right  to  insist  on  depriving  Carthage  of  her  political  in- 
dependence. 

The  main  result  to  Rome  of  the  first  Punic  war  was  that  Sicily  be- 
came from  that  time  a  Roman  dependency.  The  Romans  called  it  a 
province  ;  but  in  using  that  term  we  must  understand  that  it  was  as  yet 
not  under  the  direct  rule  of  Rome.  King  Hiero,  whose  headquarters 
were  Syracuse,  was  Rome's  ally  rather  than  her  subject,  and  it  was  through 
him  that  Roman  influence  made  itself  felt  throughout  the  island. 

No  sooner  was  the  war  with  Rome  over  than  Carthage  found  herself 


234  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  C.  229 

so  varying  was  the  fortune  of  battle,  so  doubtful  the  strug- 
gle, that  they  who  finally  conquered  were  once  the  nearer  to 

face  to  face  with  a  danger  which  threatened  her  very  existence.  Her 
mercenary  troops,  now  no  longer  needed,  rose  on  their  return  from  Sicily 
to  Africa  in  a  furious  mutiny,  in  which  they  had  the  sympathy  and  sup- 
port of  the  neighbouring  native  population,  which  caught  at  the  oppor- 
tunity of  shaking  off  the  yoke  of  Carthage.  It  was  the  hard  fate  of  Car- 
thage to  have  to  struggle  for  nearly  three  years  with  the  gigantic  insur- 
rection of  this  rude  and  motley  host.  The  war  commonly  known  as  the 
Mercenary  or  African  war,  was  also  from  the  ferocity  with  which  it  was 
waged,  spoken  of  as  the  "  truceless,"  or  "  inexpiable,"  war.  Even  at  this 
terrible  crisis  Carthage  was  not  free  from  the  rivalries  of  political  fac- 
tions, though  ultimately  the  genius  of  Hamilcar  won  for  her  a  complete 
triumph  as  far  as  the  immediate  contest  was  concerned.  But  before  it 
was  ended,  her  troops  in  Sardinia,  which  had  also  mutinied,  surrendered 
the  island  to  Rome,  and  the  surrender  was  accepted  in  disregard  of  the 
terms  of  the  last  treaty.  Thus  both  Sicily  and  Sardinia  were  lost  to  Car- 
thage previous  to  the  second  Punic  war.  This  was,  of  course,  a  severe 
blow  to  her  maritime  power. 

It  was  not  long,  however,  before  she  obtained  some  compensation  for 
her  losses.  Under  the  conduct  and  direction  of  the  great  Hamilcar  she 
acquired  a  large  territory  in  Spain,  where  as  yet  she  had  possessed  only 
the  small  commercial  centre  of  Gades  with  its  immediate  vicinity.  Spain 
was  a  country  with  a  rough  and  hardy  population  and  all  the  material  of 
an  efficient  army,  with  a  number  of  strong  positions  and  hill-fortresses, 
and  with  the  sources  of  great  wealth  in  the  silver  mines  in  its  southern 
districts.  It  was  Hamilcar's  aim  to  reduce  it  to  a  Cathaginian  depend- 
ency, and  to  raise  from  its  warlike  tribes  a  well-trained  infantry  by  way 
of  supplement  to  the  admirable  Numidian  cavalry.  We  have  not  the 
means  of  tracing  his  operations  in  detail,  but  we  may  take  it  as  certain 
that  he  showed  extraordinary  capacity  both  as  a  general  and  a  statesman, 
and  gave  Carthage  a  new  source  of  both  military  and  financial  strength. 
After  his  death,  in  B.  c.  229,  which  occurred  in  battle  with  some  tribes  in 
the  interior,  his  work  was  ably  continued  by  his  son-in-law,  Hasdrubal  ; 
the  conquests  of  Carthage  were  confirmed,  several  cities  were  founded, 
among  them  New  Carthage  (Cartagena),  with  its  excellent  harbour,  and 
the  mines  in  the  neighbourhood  were  worked  with  great  profit.  It  is 
probable  that  the  territory  directly  under  Carthaginian  rule  comprised  what 
is  now  Andalusia,  Granada,  Murcia,  and  Valencia,  and  that  Carthaginian 
influence  extended  to  the  eastern  shores  of  the  peninsula.  Carthage  had 
thus  not  only  recovered  lost  ground,  but  had  greatly  added  to  her  strength 
at  all  points.  She  had  in  her  armies  a  formidable  infantry  as  well  as 
splendid  cavalry,  and  her  new  possessions  largely  increased  her  means  of 
furnishing  them  with  regular  pay.  She  was,  in  fact,  at  the  height  of  her 
power  when  she  entered  on  the  second  Punic  war. 

Rome  naturally  did  not  like  the  state  of  affairs  in  Spain,  and  the  result 
was  a  treaty  with  Hasdrubal  providing  that  the  Carthaginians  were  not 
to  advance  east  of  the  Ebro  with  designs  of  conquest.  The  treaty,  so 
said  the  war  party  at  Carthage,  was  not  concluded  with  the  sanction  of 
the  home  government.  Hannibal's  attack  on  Saguntum,  which  was  to 
the  west  of  the  Ebro,  was  not  indeed  a  violation  of  this  treaty  or  compact 
with  Hasdrubal,  but  it  was  obviously  meant  as  an  insult  to  Rome,  whose 
allies,  as  he  well  knew,  the  Saguntines  had  been  for  many  years.  In  this 
sense  Carthage  may  be  said  to  have  provoked  the  second  Punic  war, 
though  had  Rome  wished  to  put  herself  in  the  right  and  to  stand  by 
the  faith  of  treaties,  she  ought  to  have  given  up  Sardinia,  which,  as  we 


B.  c.  229]  LIFE  OF  HANNIBAL  235 

ruin.  And  they  fought,  too,  with  a  hate  well-nigh  greater  than 
their  strength.  Rome  was  indignant  that  the  conquered 
should  presume  to  attack  the  conqueror,  Carthage  because  she 
thought  the  vanquished  had  been  subjected  to  an  arrogant 
and  rapacious  rule. 

There  is  a  story,  too,  of  Hannibal  when,  at  nine  years  of 
age,  he  was  boyishly  coaxing  his  father  Hamilcar  to  take  him 
with  him  to  Spain  (Hamilcar  had  just  finished  the  African 
war,  and  was  sacrificing  before  transporting  his  army  to  that 
country),  how  the  child  was  set  by  the  altar,  and  there,  with 
his  hand  upon  the  victim,  was  made  to  swear  that,  so  soon  as 
he  could,  he  would  be  the  enemy  of  the  Roman  people.  The 
loss  of  Sicily  and  Sardinia  was  very  galling  to  a  man  of  high 
spirit.1  Sicily,  he  knew,  had  been  surrendered  in  premature 
despair;  Sardinia  had  been  snatched  from  them  by  Roman 
fraud,  in  the  midst  of  their  troubles  in  Africa,  while  an  addi- 
tional war  indemnity  had  been  imposed  on  them. 

Agitated  by  these  thoughts  during  the  five  years  of  the 
African  war,  which  followed  immediately  on  the  recent  peace 
with  Rome,  and  then  during  the  nine  years  in  which  he  was 
extending  the  Carthaginian  empire  in  Spain,  he  showed  plainly 
by  his  actions  that  he  was  meditating  a  war  greater  than  that 
in  which  he  was  engaged.  Had  he  lived  longer,  the  Car- 
thaginians, led  by  Hamilcar,  would  have  entered  Italy  in  arms, 
as  they  did  afterward  under  the  leadership  of  Hannibal. 

The  singularly  opportune  death  of  Hamilcar  and  the  ex- 
treme youth  of  Hannibal  delayed  the  war.  During  an  interval 
of  eight  years  between  the  father  and  the  son,  Hasdrubal  held 
supreme  command.  In  the  first  bloom  of  his  youth,  such  is 
the  story,  he  became  the  favourite  of  Hamilcar,  who  subse- 
quently in  his  later  years,  seeing  his  high  spirits,  chose  him  to 
be  his  son-in-law.  As  such,  he  rose  to  power,  not  indeed  with 
the  approval  of  the  principal  citizens,  but  by  the  influence  of 
the  Barcine  faction,2  which  was  very  great  with  the  army  and 
the  people.  Preferring  policy  to  force,  he  advanced  Cartha- 
ginian interests  far  more  by  forming  connections  with  the 
petty  chiefs,  and  by  winning  over  new  tribes  through  the 
friendship  of  their  leading  men,  than  by  war  and  arms.  To 
him,  however,  peace  proved  no  safer  than  war.  A  barbarian, 
resenting  Hasdrubal's  execution  of  his  master,  murdered  him 

have  seen,  she  had  acquired  by  the  treacherous  surrender  of  the  mutinous 
Carthaginian  garrison. — W.  J.  B. 

1  That  is,  Hamilcar.— D.  O. 

9  Barca  was  the  surname  of  Hamilcar.  Being  the  greatest  of  the  Car- 
thaginian families,  they  courted,  as  was  often  the  case,  popular  and  mili- 
tary support  against  their  rivals  of  the  oligarchy. — D.  O. 


236  LIVY'S   ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  229 

in  open  day.  Seized  by  the  bystanders,  he  seemed  as  cheerful 
as  if  he  had  escaped;  even  when  he  was  torn  upon  the  rack, 
the  expression  of  his  face  was  of  one  who  laughed;  so  com- 
pletely did  joy  triumph  over  agony.  It  was  with  this  Has- 
drubal  that  Rome,  seeing  his  marvellous  tact  in  dealing  with 
the  tribes,  and  in  attaching  them  to  his  government,  had  re- 
newed the  old  treaty.  The  river  Ebro  was  to  be  the  boundary 
of  their  respective  empires,  while  the  Saguntines,  who  were 
between  the  dominions  of  the  two  nations,  were  to  retain  their 
freedom.1 

As  to  Hasdrubal's  successor,  there  could  be  no  question 
that  the  leader  of  the  soldiers'  choice — they  had  instantly  car- 
ried the  young  Hannibal  into  the  general's  tent,  and  pro- 
claimed him  commander-in-chief  amid  loud  and  universal  ac- 
clamation— was  followed  by  the  good  wishes  of  the  people. 
When  he  was  a  mere  boy,  Hasdrubal  had  written  a  letter 
inviting  him  over  to  Spain,  and  a  proposal  had  been  actually 
made  in  the  senate,  the  Barcine  party  contending  that  Hanni- 
bal should  be  trained  to  the  soldier's  life  and  succeed  to  his 
father's  high  position.  To  this,  Hanno,  the  leader  of  the  oppo- 
sitz  faction,  replied,  "  Hasdrubal's  demand  seems  fair,  and 
yet  I,  for  my  part,  maintain  that  we  ought  not  to  grant  what 
he  asks." 

Astonishment  at  a  speech  so  ambiguous  having  drawn 
every  eye  upon  the  speaker,  Hanno  added:  "The  youthful 
beauty  which  Hasdrubal  himself  surrendered  to  Hannibal's 
father,  he  has  now  good  right,  he  thinks,  to  claim  back  from 
the  son.  But  we  surely  ought  not  to  habituate  our  young 
men  to  the  wanton  lusts  of  our  generals  by  way  of  an  appren- 
ticeship in  arms.  Or  are  we  afraid  that  the  son  of  Hamilcar 
will  have  to  wait  too  long  before  he  witnesses  the  unrestrained 
power,  the  show  of  monarchy,  which  his  father  assumed; 
that  we  shall  fall  too  slowly  under  the  domination  of  the  son 
of  the  man  who,  after  the  manner  of  a  king,  left  our  armies  as 
an  inheritance  to  his  son-in-law?  For  my  part  I  think  that  this 
young  man  should  be  kept  at  home  under  our  laws  and 
magistrates  and  taught  to  live  on  the  same  terms  as  the  rest  of 
us,  or  else,  I  fear,  this  little  fire  will  some  day  blaze  forth  into 
a  mighty  conflagration."  2 

1  As  Saguntum  lay  considerably  south  of  the  Ebro,  a  special  claim  was 
put  in  in  their  favour  as  being  allies  of  Rome.  Livy's  statement  seems 
to  be  inaccurate  on  its  face. — D.  O. 

*  This  is  a  foretaste  of  the  constant  opposition  which  Hanno  and  the 
oligarchy  at  home  offered  to  Hannibal's  efforts  for  his  country.  The 
same  influence  went  to  cripple  him  through  all  his  campaigns,  and  it  is 
perhaps  natural  that  Livy  should  sympathize  with  it. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  229]  CHARACTER  OF  HANNIBAL  237 

Hanno  carried  the  assent  of  but  few,  among  whom,  how- 
ever, were  all  the  best  men.  As  often  happens,  numbers  pre- 
vailed over  right.  Hannibal  was  sent  to  Spain,  and  instantly 
on  his  arrival  attracted  the  admiration  of  the  whole  army. 
The  veterans  thought  that  it  was  Hamilcar  restored  to  them  a 
youth  again,  as  they  saw  in  him  the  same  animated  look  and 
penetrating  eye,  the  same  expression,  the  same  features.  Soon 
he  made  them  feel  that  his  father's  likeness  was  but  the  least  of 
the  influences  in  winning  their  esteem.  Never  had  man  a  tem- 
per that  adapted  itself  better  to  the  widely  diverse  duties  of  obe- 
dience and  command,  till  it  was  hard  to  decide  whether  he  was 
more  beloved  by  the  general  or  the  army.  There  was  no  one 
whom  Hasdrubal  preferred  to  put  in  command,  whenever 
courage  and  persistency  were  specially  needed,  no  officer 
under  whom  the  soldiers  were  more  confident  and  more  dar- 
ing. Bold  to  the  extreme  in  incurring  peril,  he  was  per- 
fectly cool  in  its  presence.  No  toil  could  weary  his  body  or 
conquer  his  spirit.  Heat  and  cold  he  bore  with  equal  en- 
durance; the  cravings  of  nature,  not  the  pleasure  of  the  pal- 
ate, determined  the  measure  of  his  food  and  drink.  His  wak- 
ing and  sleeping  hours  were  not  regulated  by  day  and  night. 
Such  time  as  business  left  him,  he  gave  to  repose;  but  it  was 
not  on  a  soft  couch  or  in  stillness  that  he  sought  it.  Many 
a  man  often  saw  him,  wrapped  in  his  military  cloak,  lying  on 
the  ground  amid  the  sentries  and  pickets.  His  dress  was 
not  one  whit  superior  to  that  of  his  comrades,  but  his  ac- 
coutrements and  horses  were  conspicuously  splendid.  Among 
the  cavalry  or  the  infantry  he  was  by  far  the  first  soldier;  the 
first  in  battle,  the  last  to  leave  it  when  once  begun. 

These  great  virtues  in  the  man  were  equalled  by  mon- 
strous vices,  inhuman  cruelty,  a  worse  than  Punic  perfidy. 
Absolutely  false  and  irreligious,  he  had  no  fear  of  God,  no 
regard  for  an  oath,  no  scruples.  With  this  combination  of 
virtues  and  vices,  he  served  three  years  under  the  command  of 
Hasdrubal,  omitting  nothing  which  a  man  who  was  to  be  a 
great  general  ought  to  do  or  to  see.1 

1  Livy's  brief  and  vigorous  sketch  of  Hannibal's  character  should  be 
supplemented  by  Polybius's  estimate  of  him,  which  is  carefully  worked 
out  and  may  no  doubt  be  accepted  as  tolerably  impartial.  According  to 
Polybius,  "  some  said  he  was  horribly  cruel,  some  that  he  was  very  ra- 
pacious," but  of  his  alleged  cruelties,  many  were  to  be  set  down  to  a  cer- 
tain Hannibal  Monomachus,  one  of  his  friends  and  advisers,  with  whom 
he  was  confounded.  As  to  his  rapacity,  he  got  credit  for  this  vice  through 
employing  the  services  of  an  unscrupulous  plunderer,  one  Mago,  in  Brut- 
tium.  These  seem  rather  poor  excuses  for  serious  faults,  and  Polybius 
has  to  admit  that  his  countrymen,  the  Carthaginians,  thought  Hannibal 
rapacious,  and  his  enemies,  the  Romans,  thought  him  cruel.  Of  course 


238  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  220-219 

From  the  day  on  which  he  was  proclaimed  general  he  re- 
garded Italy  as  his  duly  assigned  province,  and  war  with 
Rome  as  his  special  commission.  Feeling  that  there  must  not 
be  a  moment's  delay,  or  that  he,  too,  like  his  father  Hamilcar 
and  afterward  Hasdrubal,  might,  if  he  hesitated,  be  cut  off  by 
some  sudden  mischance,  he  resolved  on  war  with  Saguntum. 
As  it  was  certain  that  Rome  would  be  provoked  to  arms  by  an 
attack  on  this  place,  he  first  led  his  troops  into  the  territory  of 
the  Olcades,1  a  tribe  beyond  the  Ebro,  within  Carthaginian 
limits  rather  than  within  their  actual  dominions.  He  wished 
to  seem,  if  possible,  not  to  have  made  Saguntum  his  object, 
but  to  have  been  gradually  drawn  into  war  with  it,  by  suc- 
cessive events,  the  subjugation  of  neighbouring  tribes  and 
the  annexation  of  territory.  He  stormed  and  plundered  Car- 
tala,  a  rich  city  and  the  capital  of  the  Olcades.  Terror-stricken 
by  this  disaster,  the  weaker  submitted  to  his  rule  and  to  the 
tribute  imposed  on  them.  The  victorious  army,  laden  with 
booty,  was  now  marched  into  winter  quarters  at  New  Car- 
thage.2 There,  by  a  liberal  distribution  of  the  spoil  and  a 
faithful  discharge  of  all  arrears  of  pay,  Hannibal  won  all  hearts 
among  both  citizens  and  soldiers. 

Early  in  the  spring,  the  war  was  pushed  into  the  country 
of  the  Vaccsei.3  Their  towns,  Hermandica  and  Arbocala,  were 
stormed.  Arbocala  owed  a  long  defence  to  the  valour  and 
the  numbers  of  its  inhabitants.  The  fugitives  from  Herman- 
dica joined  the  exiles  from  the  Olcades,  the  tribe  conquered  in 
the  previous  summer,  and  together  roused  the  Carpetani.4 
Falling  upon  Hannibal,  on  his  return  from  the  Vaccaei,  near 
the  river  Tagus,  they  threw  his  troops,  encumbered  as  they 

it  at  once  occurs  to  us  that  at  Carthage  there  was  a  violent  political  party 
against  him  and  his  policy,  and  so  not  much  weight  perhaps  ought  to 
be  attached  to  an  imputation  from  such  a  quarter.  On  the  whole,  Po- 
lybius's  sympathies  appear  to  be  with  him,  and  he  more  than  once  re- 
marks on  the  extreme  difficulty  of  ascertaining  the  exact  truth  about 
men  who  have  made  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the  world's  history.  The 
embarrassing  position  in  which  Hannibal  found  himself  after  the  recov- 
ery of  Capua  by  the  Romans,  when  he  had  to  hold  his  ground  with 
inferior  numbers  against  several  hostile  armies,  may  very  well,  he  admits, 
have  driven  him  into  harsh  and  cruel  acts,  or  at  least  into  acts  which, 
from  a  Roman  point  of  view,  would  have  been  so  described. — W.  J.  B. 

1  Their  territory  lay  just  north  of  Carthagena. — D.  O. 

9  Now  Carthagena. — D.  O. 

*  Their  country  lay  in  northern  and  central  Spain,  west  of  Numan- 
tia.— D.  O. 

4  They  inhabited  central  Spain  southward  of  Numantia,  and  lay  be- 
tween the  Vaccaei  and  Olcades.  Probably  they  had  remained  neutral,  and 
allowed  the  Carthaginians  to  march  through  their  territory  against  the 
Vaccaei. — D.  O. 


HANNIBAL 
From  an  old  engraving 


B.  c.  219]  SUBJUGATION  OF   THE   TRIBES  239 

were  with  spoil,  into  confusion.  Hannibal  declined  an  engage- 
ment. He  encamped  on  the  river  bank,  and,  as  soon  as  ever 
he  noticed  that  the  enemy  was  quiet  and  silent,  forded  the 
stream.1  His  rampart  being  advanced  so  far  that  the  enemy 
had  room  to  cross,  he  resolved  to  attack  them  during  the 
passage.2  He  ordered  his  cavalry  as  soon  as  they  entered  the 
water  to  charge  the  encumbered  host.  On  the  bank  he  ranged 
his  forty  elephants.  The  Carpetani,  with  the  contingent  of 
the  Olcades  and  Vaccaei,  numbered  a  hundred  thousand,  an 
invincible  array  had  the  battle  been  fought  in  open  and  level 
country.  Naturally  fearless,  they  were  now  confident  in 
their  numbers.  Fancying  that  the  enemy's  retreat  was  due 
to  fear,  they  saw  in  the  river  the  only  obstacle  to  victory ;  and, 
raising  a  shout,  dashed  recklessly  into  the  stream,  taking  every 
man  the  nearest  way,  without  waiting  for  any  orders.  From 
the  opposite  bank  a  strong  body  of  cavalry  was  launched  into 
the  stream  against  them,  and  the  two  met  in  midchannel  in  an 
utterly  unequal  conflict.  The  foot  soldier,  with  insecure  foot- 
ing and  but  a  faint  trust  in  the  ford,  might  well  be  beaten  down 
even  by  a  weaponless  rider  who  spurred  his  horse  fiercely  at 
him;  while  the  trooper,  free  to  use  limbs  and  weapons,  his 
steed  standing  firm  even  amid  the  rush  of  the  water,  could 
fight  at  close  quarters  or  skirmish  as  he  pleased.  Numbers 
were  swept  away  by  the  stream;  some  were  carried  by  the 
eddying  current  among  their  foes,  and  trampled  down  by  the 
elephants.  Those  in  the  rear  who  could  return  in  comparative 
safety  to  their  own  bank,  began  to  reassemble  from  all  parts 
to  which  they  had  fled;  but  before  they  could  recover  from  so 
great  a  shock,  Hannibal  had  plunged  into  the  river  with  a 
column  in  fighting  order,  and  driven  them  in  flight  from  the 
shore.  He  laid  waste  their  country,  and  within  a  few  days  the 
Carpetani  too  had  surrendered.  And  now  all  beyond  the  Ebro 
except  Saguntum  was  in  Carthaginian  hands. 

War  with  Saguntum  was  not  indeed  yet  declared;  but  al- 
ready, with  a  view  to  war,  quarrels  were  being  started  between 
it  and  its  neighbours,  more  particularly  the  Turdetani.  When 
the  very  man  who  was  the  sower  of  strife  took  up  the  cause 
of  the  tribe,  and  it  was  evident  that  he  was  not  bent  on  arbitra- 
tion, but  on  hostilities,  the  Saguntines  despatched  envoys  to 
Rome,  begging  help  for  a  war  now  assuredly  imminent.  The 

1  Having  first  deceived  them  as  to  his  intentions  by  pitching  camp. — 
D.  O. 

1  Apparently  he  advanced  his  camp  to  a  distance,  that  they  might  im- 
agine he  had  continued  his  flight,  and  that  the  passage  of  the  river  would 
not  be  disputed. — D.  O. 


240  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  219 

consuls  at  Rome  were  then  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio  and 
Tiberius  Sempronius  Longus.  They  introduced  the  embassy 
to  the  senate,  and  brought  before  it  the  question  of  public 
policy,  the  result  being  a  decision  to  send  envoys  to  Spain  to 
look  into  the  position  of  their  allies.  Should  these  envoys 
think  that  there  was  adequate  cause,  they  were  peremptorily 
to  bid  Hannibal  not  to  meddle  with  the  Saguntines,  as  being 
allies  of  Rome,  then  to  cross  over  into  Africa  to  Carthage  and 
there  report  the  complaints  of  Rome's  allies. 

The  mission  had  been  resolved  upon,  but  not  despatched, 
when  news  came  sooner  than  any  one  could  have  expected 
that  Saguntum  was  besieged.  At  once  the  matter  was  again 
brought  before  the  senate.  Some  were  for  assigning  Spain 
and  Africa  to  the  consuls  as  their  provinces,  and  for  making 
war  by  sea  and  land.  Others  were  for  bending  all  their  ef- 
forts against  Spain  and  Hannibal.  Some  maintained  that  they 
must  not  move  rashly  in  so  serious  a  crisis,  but  should  await 
the  return  of  their  envoys  from  Spain.  This  seemed  the 
safest  counsel,  and  it  prevailed.  Accordingly,  the  envoys,  Pub- 
lius Valerius  Flaccus  and  Quintus  Baebius  Tamphilus,  were 
despatched  without  further  delay  to  Hannibal  at  Saguntum; 
thence,  unless  there  was  a  cessation  of  hostilities,  they  were 
to  go  to  Carthage  to  demand  the  surrender  of  the  offending 
general  as  a  penalty  for  the  violation  of  the  treaty. 

While  the  Romans  were  thus  preparing  and  deliberating, 
Saguntum  was  already  being  attacked  with  the  utmost  vigour. 
It  was  far  the  richest  city  beyond  the  Ebro,  and  stood  about  a 
mile  from  the  sea.  Its  inhabitants  came  originally,  it  is  said, 
from  the  island  Zacynthus,1  and  mingled  with  them  was  an 
element  of  Rutulian  origin  from  Ardea.  Anyhow,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  they  had  rapidly  risen  to  their  great  prosperity  by 
profits  that  came  both  from  sea  and  land,  by  the  growth  of 
population,  and  by  that  training  in  a  scrupulous  honour  which 
made  them  respect  their  loyalty  as  allies  even  to  their  own 
destruction.  Hannibal  entered  their  territory  with  an  army 
prepared  for  war,  and  after  ravaging  their  lands  far  and  wide, 
attacked  their  city  in  three  divisions. 

One  angle  of  their  wall  looked  toward  a  valley  more  level 
and  more  open  than  the  neighbouring  country,  and  against 
this  he  decided  to  advance  his  engines,  and  under  their  shel- 
ter to  apply  the  battering-ram  to  the  ramparts.  But  al- 
though the  ground  at  some  distance  from  the  wall  was  con- 
venient enough  for  advancing  the  engines,  yet  when  they 
came  to  attack  the  wall  in  earnest,  the  attempt  was  anything 
J  The  modern  Zante,  off  the  west  coast  of  Morea. — D,  O, 


B.  C.  219]  SIEGE   OF   SAGUNTUM  241 

but  successful.  There  was  a  huge  overhanging  tower;  the 
wall,  too  (for  the  place  was  known  to  be  weak),  was  raised 
above  its  height  in  other  parts.  Then  again,  as  the  point  was 
one  of  conspicuous  peril  and  danger,  a  picked  body  of  young 
men  opposed  there  a  particularly  vigorous  resistance.  First, 
they  kept  off  the  enemy  with  missiles  and  left  him  no  sort  of 
safety,  while  he  was  making  his  advances;  next,  no  longer 
merely  discharging  their  volleys  from  the  fortifications  and 
the  tower,  they  took  courage  to  rush  out  upon  his  outposts 
and  works.  In  these  skirmishes  hardly  more  Saguntines  fell 
than  Carthaginians.  Hannibal  himself,  approaching  the  wall 
somewhat  incautiously,  was  struck  down  by  a  severe  wound 
on  his  thigh  from  a  javelin,  and  forthwith  there  was  such 
consternation  and  panic  everywhere  around  that  the  works 
and  engines  were  all  but  abandoned. 

During  the  next  few  days,  while  the  general's  wound  was 
being  treated,  there  was  more  of  blockade  than  of  active  at- 
tack. But,  though  during  this  interval  there  was  a  lull  in  the 
fighting,  there  was  no  rest  from  the  preparation  of  works  and 
from  engineering  labour.  And  so  the  contest  was  renewed 
with  greater  fury;  approaches  began  to  be  made,  and  the 
battering-rams  applied  at  a  number  of  points,  though  some 
places  hardly  admitted  of  their  being  worked.  The  Cartha- 
ginians had  a  superabundance  of  men,  having,  it  is  generally 
believed,  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  under  arms,  while  the 
townspeople  were  now  compelled  to  spread  their  strength  over 
a  wide  space  in  order  to  guard  and  watch  each  point.  Their 
numbers,  therefore,  were  insufficient.  The  walls,  too,  which 
were  now  being  hammered  by  the  battering-rams,  had  in  many 
places  been  shattered.  At  one  point  a  continuous  breach 
had  left  the  city  defenceless;  three  towers  in  succession  and 
the  wall  between  them  had  fallen  with  a  great  crash.  The 
town,  so  thought  the  Carthaginians,  was  as  good  as  taken 
after  such  a  downfall.  Then,  just  as  if  the  wall  had  before 
screened  both  combatants  alike,  the  besiegers  and  besieged 
rushed  to  battle.  This  was  nothing  like  one  of  those  irregu- 
lar fights  which  commonly  occur  at  assaults  on  towns,  where 
one  side  seizes  his  opportunity;  regular  lines,  drawn  up  as 
though  in  an  open  plain,  took  their  stand  between  the  ruins  of 
the  wall  and  the  houses,  which  stood  not  far  off.  Hope  fired 
one  side,  despair  the  other.  The  Carthaginians  thought  that, 
with  a  very  slight  effort,  they  were  masters  of  the  place,  while 
the  Saguntines  barred  the  way  with  their  bodies  to  save  homes 
now  stripped  of  their  defences,  and  not  a  man  yielded  a  foot 
lest  he  should  let  in  the  enemy  to  the  ground  surrendered, 
rf 


242  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  219 

The  fiercer  the  fight,  the  denser  the  crowd  on  either  side, 
the  more  numerous  were  the  wounded,  for  not  a  dart  fell 
without  effect  amid  such  a  mass  of  combatants.  The  Sagun- 
tines  used  the  so-called  "  falarica,"  a  missile  with  a  pine-wood 
shaft,  smooth  except  at  the  extremity,  from  which  an  iron 
point  projected.  This,  which,  as  in  the  "  pilum,"  was  of  a 
square  form,  was  bound  round  with  tow  and  smeared  with 
pitch.  The  iron  point  of  the  weapon  was  three  feet  long,  such 
as  could  pierce  straight  through  the  body  armour  and  all,  and 
even  if  it  stuck  in  the  shield  without  penetrating  the  body,  it 
caused  great  panic,  for  it  was  discharged  with  one  half  of  it 
on  fire,  and  carrying  with  it  a  flame  fanned  by  the  very  motion 
into  greater  fury,  it  made  the  men  throw  off  their  armour,  and 
exposed  the  soldier  t,o  the  stroke  which  followed. 

After  a  long,  indecisive  struggle,  the  Saguntines,  taking 
heart  because  they  were  holding  their  ground  beyond  their 
hopes,  the  Carthaginians  thinking  themselves  vanquished  be- 
cause they  were  not  victorious,  suddenly  the  townspeople 
raised  a  shout,  drove  the  enemy  to  the  ruins  of  the  wall,  and 
thrusting  him  out  thence,  entangled  and  bewildered,  finally 
beat  him  back  in  disorderly  flight  to  his  camp.  Meanwhile 
came  news  of  the  arrival  of  the  envoys  from  Rome.  Hanni- 
bal sent  men  to  the  sea  to  meet  them  with  the  message  that 
it  would  not  be  safe  for  them  to  come  to  him  through  such  a 
vast  host  of  wild  tribes,  and  that  it  was  not  worth  his  while 
at  such  a  crisis  to  be  receiving  embassies.  It  was  evident 
that,  if  not  admitted,  they  would  go  straight  to  Carthage. 
So  Hannibal  sent  off  before  them  some  messengers  with  a 
letter  to  the  chiefs  of  the  Barcine  faction,  bidding  them  pre- 
pare the  minds  of  their  partisans,  that  the  other  party  might 
not  have  the  chance  of  making  any  concession  to  Roman 
demands.  , 

Thus,  save  that  they  were  received  and  heard,1  the  mis- 
sion of  the  envoys  was  fruitless  and  abortive.  Hanno  alone 
pleaded  for  the  treaty  before  the  senate,  amid  a  profound 
silence  due  to  his  personal  influence,  but  not  with  the  ap- 
proval of  his  audience.  "  I  charged,  I  forewarned  you,"  said 
he,  appealing  to  the  gods  who  were  the  arbiters  and  witnesses 
of  treaties,  "  not  to  let  Hamilcar's  son  go  to  the  army.  The 
departed  spirit,  the  race  of  that  man,  know  no  rest.  As  long 
as  there  is  a  survivor  of  Barcine  blood  and  name,  the  treaty 
with  Rome  will  never  be  left  in  peace.  You  have  sent  to  the 
army,  by  way  of  adding  fuel  to  the  flame,  a  youth  burning 
with  the  lust  of  empire,  and  seeing  but  one  way  to  its  attain- 

1  That  is,  at  Carthage.— D.  O. 


B.  C.  219]  HANNO'S  SPEECH  243 

ment,  to  start  war  after  war,  and  to  live  encompassed  with 
arms  and  armies.  Thus  you  have  fed  this  fire  which  is  now 
blazing  around  you.  Your  armies  are  besieging  Saguntum, 
which  a  treaty  forbids  them  to  touch;  before  long,  Rome's 
legions  will  be  besieging  Carthage,  led  by  those  same  gods 
through  whom  in  the  last  war  Rome  avenged  her  broken 
treaties.1  Is  it  of  the  enemy,  or  of  yourselves,  or  of  the  for- 
tunes of  either  people  that  you  are  so  utterly  ignorant?  En- 
voys who  come  from  allies  on  behalf  of  allies,  your  good  gen- 
eral has  not  admitted  to  his  camp;  he  has  made  light  of  inter- 
national law.  Yet  these  men  after  being  repulsed  where  even 
an  enemy's  envoys  are  not  refused  admission,  come  to  you, 
claiming  satisfaction  as  the  treaty  directs.  To  free  the  state 
from  wrong-doing,  they  demand  the  author  of  the  offence, 
the  man  chargeable  with  the  crime.  The  more  gently  they 
deal,  the  slower  they  are  to  begin,  the  more  persistent,  I  fear, 
when  they  have  once  begun,  will  be  their  wrath.  Keep  be- 
fore your  eyes  the  Agates  Islands  and  Mount  Eryx,2  and  what 
for  twenty-four  years  you  suffered  by  land  and  sea.  And  it 
was  not  this  boy  who  was  then  in  command,  but  the  boy's 
father,  Hamilcar,  a  second  Mars,  as  his  party  will  have  it. 
But  we  had  not  kept  our  hands  off  Tarentum,3  that  is,  off 
Italy,  as  the  treaty  enjoined,  just  as  now  we  are  not  keeping 
our  hands  off  Saguntum.  And  so  gods  and  men  prevailed. 
And  in  the  question  so  long  debated,  which  of  the  two  nations 
had  broken  the  treaty,  the  issue  of  the  war,  like  an  impartial 
arbiter,  yielded  the  triumph  to  the  side  on  which  right  stood. 
It  is  against  Carthage  that  Hannibal  is  bringing  up  his  en- 
gines and  his  towers;  it  is  the  walls  of  Carthage  that  he  is 
shaking  with  his  battering-ram.  The  ruins  of  Saguntum  (I 
hope  I  may  be  a  false  prophet)  will  fall  on  our  heads,  and  the 
war  begun  with  the  Saguntines  must  be  carried  on  with  the 
Romans. 

"  Shall  we,  then,  give  up  Hannibal  ?  some  one  will  say.  I 
know  that  my  word  goes  for  little  in  the  matter,  because  of 
my  feud  with  his  father.  Still,  as  I  rejoiced  at  Hamilcar's 
death,  because  we  should  have  had  war  with  Rome  had  he 
lived,  so,  as  for  this  youth,  the  very  fury,  I  may  call  him,  and 
firebrand  of  this  conflict,  I  hate  and  detest  him.  Not  only  do 

1  To  put  such  language  and  what  follows  in  the  mouth  of  a  Cathagin- 
ian  is  rather  absurd,  especially  as  the  fault  of  the  first  Punic  war  lay 
principally  with  Rome. — D.  O. 

4  The  scenes  of  the  defeats  suffered  in  the  war  in  Sicily. 

8  Modern  Taranto.  The  incident  referred  to  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  first  war,  having  taken  place  after  the  war  with  Pyrrhus.  Its  rights 
or  wrongs  are  uncertain. — D.  O. 


244  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  219 

I  think  that  we  should  give  him  up  to  atone  for  the  broken 
treaty,  but  that,  even  if  no  one  demanded,  we  should  transport 
him  to  the  remotest  regions  of  earth  and  sea,  and  banish  him 
to  where  neither  his  name  nor  fame  could  reach  us  and  trouble 
the  welfare  of  a  peace-loving  community.  My  opinion  is  that 
we  ought  at  once  to  send  envoys  to  Rome  with  an  apology 
to  the  senate,  and  others  to  bid  Hannibal  withdraw  his  army 
from  Saguntum,  and  to  deliver  up  the  man  himself  to  the 
Romans,  as  the  treaty  directs.  And  I  propose  that  there  be  a 
third  embassy  to  make  restitution  to  the  Saguntines." 

When  Hanno  had  done  speaking,  not  a  single  man  felt 
it  necessary  to  answer  his  speech.  Almost  the  whole  senate 
was  devoted  to  Hannibal;  Hanno,  they  declared,  had  spoken 
more  bitterly  than  Flaccus  Valerius,  the  Roman  ambassador. 
Answer  was  then  returned  to  the  envoys  from  Rome.  '  The 
war,"  it  was  said,  "  was  begun  by  the  Saguntines,  not  by  Han- 
nibal; the  Roman  people  do  wrong  if  they  prefer  the  Sagun- 
tines to  their  very  ancient  alliance  with  Carthage." 

While  the  Romans  were  wasting  time  in  sending  em- 
bassies, Hannibal,  finding  his  soldiers  wearied  with  fighting 
and  siege  work,  gave  them  a  few  days'  rest,  posting  pickets, 
however,  to  guard  his  engines  and  other  works.  Meanwhile 
he  kindled  their  ardour,  now  firing  them  with  wrath  against 
the  foe,  now  by  the  hope  of  reward.  As  soon  as  he  had  pub- 
licly proclaimed  that  the  spoil  of  the  captured  city  should 
belong  to  the  soldiers,  they  were  all  so  excited  that,  had  the 
signal  been  that  instant  given,  no  strength,  it  seemed,  could 
have  resisted  them.  The  Saguntines,  though  they  had  had 
rest  from  fighting,  and  had  neither  attacked  nor  been  at- 
tacked for  some  days,  worked  night  and  day  without  cessa- 
tion to  build  up  a  new  wall  on  the  spot  where  the  fall  of  the 
old  had  laid  their  town  bare.  Then  they  had  to  face  a  far 
fiercer  assault  than  ever,  nor  could  they  well  judge,  with  loud 
discordant  cries  all  about  them,  where  the  promptest  or  the 
most  powerful  aid  was  needed.  Hannibal  was  present  in  per- 
son encouraging  his  men  where  they  were  advancing  a  mov- 
able tower,  which  exceeded  in  height  any  part  of  the  fortifica- 
tions. As  soon  as  it  had  been  brought  up  and,  by  means  of 
the  catapults  and  ballistas  *  ranged  on  its  several  stories,  had 
swept  the  defenders  from  the  ramparts,  he  thought  that  the 
opportunity  was  come,  and  sent  about  five  hundred  Africans 
with  pickaxes  to  undermine  the  wall.  This  was  no  difficult 
work,  for  the  rubble  had  not  been  compacted  with  mortar, 
but  joined  only  with  layers  of  mud  in  the  fashion  of  ancient 

1  The  catapult  shot  darts,  the  ballista  stones. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  219]  THE   CITADEL   TAKEN  245 

buildings.  And  so  there  fell  a  greater  extent  of  wall  than 
actually  received  the  blows,  and  through  the  gaps  made  by 
the  fall  bodies  of  armed  men  penetrated  into  the  city.  They 
also  seized  some  high  ground,  dragged  up  catapults  and  bal- 
listas,  and  inclosed  the  position  with  a  wall,  so  as  to  have  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  town  a  fort,  dominating  it,  like  a  citadel. 
The  Saguntines,  on  their  part,  drew  an  inner  wall  from  the 
part  of  the  city  not  yet  captured.  Both  sides  toiled  and  fought 
with  all  their  might,  but  in  defending  the  interior  of  the  town 
the  Saguntines  every  day  reduced  its  dimensions.  The  scarci- 
ty of  all  necessaries  increased  from  the  length  of  the  siege, 
while  the  prospect  of  external  aid  diminished,  as  the  Romans, 
their  only  hope,  were  so  far  distant,  and  the  whole  country 
round  was  in  the  enemy's  hands.  Still  for  a  brief  space  their 
sinking  spirits  were  revived  by  Hannibal's  sudden  departure 
on  an  expedition  against  the  Oretani  and  Carpetani.  These 
two  tribes,  dismayed  at  the  rigour  of  the  conscription,  had 
detained  the  recruiting  officers  and  caused  some  apprehen- 
sions of  revolt,  but  they  were  overpowered  by  Hannibal's 
rapidity,  and  dismissed  all  thoughts  of  war. 

There  was  no  slackening  in  the  siege  of  Saguntum,  as 
Maharbal,  Himilco's  son,  whom  Hannibal  had  left  in  com- 
mand, pressed  the  attack  so  vigorously  that  the  general's 
absence  was  felt  neither  by  the  Saguntines  nor  by  their  foe. 
Maharbal  not  only  fought  some  successful  engagements  but 
shook  down  a  good  part  of  the  walls  with  three  battering- 
rams,  and  showed  Hannibal  on  his  return  the  gap  all  strewn 
with  fresh  ruins.  Hannibal  at  once  marched  his  army  straight 
to  the  citadel ;  there  was'  a  fierce  battle  with  great  slaughter 
on  both  sides,  and  part  of  the  citadel  was  taken. 

There  was  now  a  feeble  hope  of  peace,  and  two  men, 
Alcon,  of  Saguntum,  and  Alorcus,  a  Spaniard,  tried  to  realize 
it.  Alcon,  thinking  to  gain  something  by  entreaties,  went 
over  to  Hannibal  by  night  without  the  knowledge  of  the 
Saguntines;  but  as  tears  had  no  effect,  and  the  hard  terms 
which  might  be  expected  from  an  enraged  conqueror  were 
offered,  he  sank  the  envoy  in  the  deserter,  and  remained  with 
the  enemy,  asserting  that  it  would  be  death  to  any  one  to 
propose  peace  on  such  conditions.  Hannibal's  demands,  in- 
deed, were  these:  They  must  make  restitution  to  the  Turde- 
tani,  surrender  all  their  silver  and  gold,  depart  from  the  city 
with  one  garment  apiece,  and  settle  wherever  the  Cartha- 
ginians might  bid  them.  When  Alcon  protested  that  the 
Saguntines  would  not  accept  such  terms  of  peace,  Alorcus 
declared  that  courage  yields  when  all  else  yields,  and  he  of- 


246  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  219 

fered  to  be  the  negotiator  of  a  peace.  He  was  then  one  of 
Hannibal's  soldiers,  but  he  was  the  recognised  guest  and 
friend  of  the  Saguntine  community.  In  the  sight  of  all  he 
gave  up  his  weapon  to  the  enemy's  sentries,  then  crossed 
the  lines,  and  was  conducted  at  his  own  request  to  the  Sagun- 
tine officer.  Instantly  there  was  a  rush  to  the  spot  of  citizens 
of  every  class.  When  the  crowd  had  been  pushed  aside,  Alor- 
cus  had  an  audience  before  the  senate,  and  made  the  following 
speech : 

"  Had  your  fellow-citizen  Alcon  brought  back  to  you  from 
Hannibal  terms  of  peace,  as  he  went  to  sue  for  them,  this 
journey  of  mine  would  have  been  needless,  for  I  have  come 
to  you  neither  as  Hannibal's  spokesman  nor  as  a  deserter. 
But  since  Alcon — be  the  fault  his  or  yours — has  chosen  to  stay 
with  the  enemy  (his  own  it  is,  if  he  feigned  alarm ;  yours,  if  it 
is  dangerous  to  bring  back  to  you  a  true  report),  I  have  now 
come  to  you  in  consideration  of  the  old  tie  of  friendship  be- 
tween us,  to  let  you  know  that  there  are  certain  terms  of  peace 
and  safety  for  you.  That  I  am  saying  what  I  do  say  to  you 
for  your  own  sakes  and  no  one  else's,  this  in  itself  should  be 
sufficient  proof  that  I  never  mentioned  peace  to  you  as  long 
as  either  your  own  strength  held  out  or  you  hoped  for  aid 
from  Rome.  Now  that  you  have  no  hope  from  the  Romans, 
and  that  your  arms  and  walls  no  longer  give  you  an  adequate 
defence,  I  bring  you  a  peace  which  is  inevitable  rather  than 
favourable.  Of  this  there  is  some  hope  on  this  condition, 
that  to  the  terms  which  Hannibal  offers  as  a  conqueror,  you 
listen  as  the  conquered,  and  are  prepared  to  recognise  no 
loss  indeed  in  what  you  part  with,  seeing  all  is  in  the  victor's 
hand,  but  a  bounty  in  whatever  is  left  you.  Your  city,  to  a 
great  extent  destroyed,  and  almost  wholly  in  his  grasp,  he 
takes  from  you;  your  lands  he  leaves  you,  and  intends  to 
assign  you  a  place  where  you  can  build  a  new  town;  all  your 
gold  and  silver,  whether  the  property  of  the  state  or  of  pri- 
vate citizens,  he  orders  brought  to  him;  your  own  persons 
and  the  persons  of  your  wives  and  children  he  preserves  in- 
violate, if  you  are  willing  to  quit  Saguntum  without  arms, 
with  two  garments  apiece.  Such  are  the  terms  insisted  on 
by  the  victorious  enemy ;  grievous  and  hard,  as  they  are,  your 
plight  commends  them  to  you.  For  my  part  I  do  not  despair 
of  some  mitigation  of  them,  when  Hannibal  has  once  got- 
ten everything  into  his  power.  Yet  I  maintain  that  it  is  better 
that  you  should  endure  even  such  terms,  than  be  massacred 
and  suffer  your  wives  and  children  to  be  seized  and  dragged 
into  slavery  before  your  eyes  under  the  right  of  conquest." 


B.  C.  219]  CAPTURE   OF  SAGUNTUM  247 

In  the  throng  that  gradually  crowded  round  to  hear  this 
speech,  the  popular  assembly  had  mingled  with  the  senate. 
All  in  a  moment,  before  an  answer  had  been  given,  the  chief 
citizens  withdrew.  All  the  gold  and  silver  belonging  to  the 
state  or  to  private  persons  they  collected  and  flung  into 
a  fire  hastily  lighted  for  the  purpose,  and  many  of  them  then 
threw  themselves  into  the  flames.  Amid  the  panic  and  con- 
sternation that  this  spread  through  the  whole  city,  a  further 
alarm  was  heard  from  the  citadel.  A  tower  which  had  long 
been  tottering  had  fallen ;  a  body  of  Carthaginians  had  rushed 
through  the  breach,  and  signalled  to  their  general  that  the 
enemy's  town  was  bare  of  its  usual  guards  and  sentries.  Re- 
solved promptly  to  seize  such  an  opportunity,  Hannibal  at- 
tacked in  full  force  and  took  the  city  in  a  moment.  He  had 
given  orders  for  the  massacre  of  all  the  adult  males.  Cruel 
as  the  order  was,  it  was  seen  by  the  issue  to  have  been  almost 
a  necessity.  Who,  in  fact,  could  have  been  spared  out  of  a 
population  who  either  shut  themselves  in  with  their  wives  and 
children,  and  burned  the  houses  over  their  heads,  or,  with 
swords  in  their  hands,  ceased  only  to  fight  when  they  lay 
dying  ? 

The  town  was  taken  with  an  immense  booty.  Though 
much  of  the  property  had  been  purposely  destroyed  by  the 
owners,  though  in  the  massacre  scarce  any  distinction  of  age 
was  recognised  by  the  enemy's  fury,  and  the  captives  were 
the  soldiers'  spoil,  still  it  is  certain  that  what  was  sold  pro- 
duced a  considerable  sum,  and  that  much  rich  furniture  and 
apparel  were  sent  to  Carthage. 

Some  writers  say  that  Saguntum  was  captured  eight 
months  after  the  beginning  of  the  siege,  that  Hannibal  then 
retired  into  winter  quarters  at  New  Carthage,  and  arrived 
in  Italy  five  months  after  his  departure  from  that  town.  If 
so,  it  can  not  be  that  Publius  Cornelius  and  Tiberius  Sem- 
pronius  were  the  consuls  to  whom  the  Saguntine  envoys  were 
sent  at  the  beginning  of  the  siege,  and  who  were  still  in  office 
when  they  fought  the  battles  of  the  Ticinus  and  the  Trebia 
with  Hannibal,  one  of  them  being  present  at  the  former,  both 
at  the  latter.  All  this  either  occupied  a  somewhat  shorter 
time,  or  Saguntum  was  taken,  instead  of  its  siege  having 
been  begun,  early  in  the  year  in  which  Cornelius  and  Sem- 
pronius  were  consuls.  For  the  battle  of  the  Trebia  can  not 
have  fallen  so  late  as  the  year  of  Servilius  or  Flaminius,  as 
Flaminius  e-^ered  on  his  consulate  at  Ariminum  on  the 
declaration  of  the  consul  Sempronius,  and  Sempronius,  who 
went  to  Rome  after  the  battle  of  the  Trebia  to  nominate  the 


248  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  219 

consuls,  returned  to  his  army  in  winter  quarters  as  soon  as 
the  election  was  over. 

At  almost  one  and  the  same  moment,  the  envoys  who 
had  returned  from  Carthage  reported  that  everything  tended 
to  war,  and  the  fall  of  Saguntum  was  announced.  Grief  the 
most  intense,  pity  for  the  unmerited  destruction  of  their  allies, 
shame  at  having  rendered  them  no  aid,  wrath  against  the  Car- 
thaginians, and  alarm  for  the  actual  safety  of  the  state,  as 
though  tne  enemy  were  already  at  their  gates,  so  mastered  the 
senate,  and  so  distracted  them  with  the  variety  of  simultane- 
ous emotions,  that  there  was  more  confusion  than  counsel 
among  them.  A  fiercer  and  more  warlike  foe  they  had  never 
had  to  encounter,  nor  had  Rome  ever  been  so  slothful  and  un- 
warlike.  The  Sardi,  the  Corsi,  the  Histri,  the  Illyrii,1  had  an- 
noyed rather  than  practised  the  arms  of  Rome,  and  with  the 
Gauls  there  had  been  skirmishing  more  than  regular  war. 
The  Carthaginian,  their  old  enemy,  uniformly  victorious 
through  three-and-twenty  years  of  the  severest  fighting  among 
the  nations  of  Spain,  and  trained  under  a  most  determined 
leader,  was  now  crossing  the  Ebro,  fresh  from  the  destruction 
ef  one  of  the  richest  of  cities;  he  led  with  him  the  levies  of 
many  Spanish  tribes ;  the  nations  of  Gaul,  ever  eager  for  arms, 
would  rise  at  his  bidding;  a  war  with  the  whole  world  would 
have  to  be  fought  in  Italy,  and  before  the  walls  of  Rome. 

The  provinces  to  be  assigned  to  the  consuls  had  been 
already  named ; 2  they  were  now  bidden  to  draw  lots  for  them. 
Spain  fell  to  Cornelius ;  Africa  with  Sicily  to  Sempronius.  Six 
legions  were  voted  for  the  year,  with  such  a  force  of  allies  as 
the  consuls  might  think  fit,  and  as  large  a  fleet  as  could  pos- 
sibly be  equipped ;  of  Romans  there  were  enrolled  twenty-four 
thousand  infantry,  eighteen  hundred  cavalry;  of  the  allies 
forty  thousand  infantry,  four  thousand  and  four  hundred  cav- 
alry, while  two  hundred  and  twenty  five-banked  ships  3  and 
twenty  light  galleys  were  launched. 

The  question  was  then  put  to  the  commons — Was  it  their 
will  and  pleasure  that  war  should  be  declared  against  the 
people  of  Carthage?  For  the  war  thus  sanctioned,  public 
prayers  were  offered  throughout  Rome,  and  entreaty  made 
to  the  gods  that  what  the  people  of  Rome  had  decided  might 
have  a  good  and  prosperous  issue.  The  forces  were  then 

1  The  Histri  and  Illyrii  dwelt  around  the  Gulf  of  Trieste.— D.  O. 

*  Referring  to  the  debate  above,  when  the  news  came  that  Saguntum 
was  besieged. — D.  O. 

1  Quinqueremes,  or  ships  with  five  banks  of  oars,  were  the  ships  of 
the  line  at  this  period. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  219]       AMBASSADORS   SENT   TO   CARTHAGE  249 

divided  between  the  consuls.  To  Sempronius  were  assigned 
two  legions  (these  were  each  four  thousand  infantry  and  three 
hundred  cavalry),  and  sixteen  thousand  of  the  allied  infantry, 
with  eighteen  hundred  cavalry,  one  hundred  and  sixty  great 
war  ships,  and  twelve  light  galleys.  Sempronius  was  de- 
spatched with  these  land  and  sea  forces  to  Sicily,  whence  he 
was  to  cross  into  Africa,  if  the  other  consul  proved  sufficient 
to  keep  the  Carthaginians  out  of  Italy.  Cornelius  had  a  smaller 
army,  as  Lucius  Manlius,  the  praetor,  was  himself  sent  to  Gaul 
with  a  fairly  strong  force.  It  was  in  his  fleet  that  he  was  weak- 
est; he  had  but  sixty  five-banked  ships,  for  it  was  not  believed 
that  the  enemy  would  invade  by  sea  or  attempt  that  kind  of 
warfare.  He  had  also  two  Roman  legions  with  their  proper 
complement  of  cavalry,  fourteen  thousand  allied  infantry,  and 
sixteen  hundred  cavalry.  The  province  of  Gaul  contained  two 
Roman  legions,  ten  thousand  allied  infantry,  a  thousand  allied 
and  six  hundred  Roman  cavalry,  now  destined  for  the  same 
object — the  Carthaginian  war. 

Having  completed  these  preparations,  the  Romans,  anx- 
ious to  insure  the  due  performance  of  all  the  proper  prelimi- 
naries to  war,  sent  as  envoys  to  Africa  Quintus  Fabius,  Mar- 
cus Livius,  Lucius  ^Emilius,  Caius  Licinius,  Quintus  Baebius, 
all  men  of  venerable  age,  who  were  to  question  the  Cartha- 
ginians whether  Hannibal  had  attacked  Saguntum  by  order 
of  the  state.  Should  they,  as  seemed  likely,  admit  and  justify 
the  act  as  done  by  order  of  the  state,  war  was  to  be  declared 
against  the  Carthaginians. 

As  soon  as  the  Roman  envoys  arrived  and  audience  was 
given  them  in  the  senate,  Quintus  Fabius  asked  nothing  more 
than  the  single  question  with  which  he  had  been  intrusted. 
Thereupon  one  of  the  Carthaginians  replied:  "  Your  previous 
embassy,  men  of  Rome,  was  peremptory  enough,  when  you 
demanded  Hannibal  on  the  assumption  that  he  was  ^attacking 
Saguntum  on  his  own  responsibility;  but  this  embassy, 
though  so  far  its  language  is  milder,  is  in  reality  harder  on 
us.  On  that  occasion  it  was  Hannibal  whom  you  denounced, 
whose  surrender  you  demanded;  now,  you  want  to  extort 
from  us  a  confession  of  wrong-doing,  and  to  claim  instant 
satisfaction  on  the  strength  of  such  confession.  I  should 
say  that  the  question  ought  not  to  be  whether  Saguntum 
was  attacked  on  the  responsibility  of  the  state,  or  of  a  private 
citizen,  but  was  the  attack  just  or  unjust?  It  is  surely  for  us 
to  inquire  and  decide  about  our  own  citizen,  as  to  what  he 
may  have  done  on  our  instance  or  his  own;  with  you  we 
have  only  to  discuss  whether  the  act  was  permissible  by  the 


250  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  219 

treaty.  Well,  as  you  wish  us  to  distinguish  between  what 
generals  do  on  the  state's  responsibility  and  what  on  their 
own,  we  have  a  treaty  with  you  which  was  concluded  by  your 
consul,  Caius  Lutatius,  and  in  this,  though  it  guarded  the 
interests  of  the  allies  of  both  parties,  there  was  no  such  pro- 
vision for  the  Saguntines,  who,  in  fact,  were  not  yet  your 
allies.  But  you  will  say,  the  Saguntines  are  exempted  from 
attack  by  the  treaty  which  you  concluded  with  Hasdrubal. 
Against  this  I  am  going  to  say  nothing  but  what  I  have 
learned  from  you.  You  said  yourselves  that  you  were  not 
bound  by  the  treaty  which  Caius  Lutatius,  your  consul,  first 
made  with  us,  because  it  was  made  without  the  sanction  of 
the  senate  and  the  assent  of  the  commons,  and  accordingly 
another  treaty  was  concluded  with  the  sanction  of  the  state. 
If  you  are  not  bound  by  your  own  treaties  unless  they  are 
made  with  your  full  sanction  and  assent,  assuredly  we  can  not 
accept  the  obligation  of  Hasdrubal's  treaty,  which  he  made 
without  our  knowledge.  So  cease  to  talk  of  Saguntum  and 
the  Ebro,  and  let  your  hearts  at  last  give  birth  to  the  project 
of  which  they  have  long  been  in  labour." 

Upon  this  the  Roman  gathered  his  robe  into  a  fold,  and 
said:  "Here  we  bring  you  peace  and  war;  take  which  you 
please."  Instantly  on  the  word  rose  a  shout  as  fierce :  "  Give 
us  which  you  please."  The  Roman,  in  reply,  shook  out  the 
fold,  and  spoke  again :  "  I  give  you  war."  The  answer  from 
all  was :  "  We  accept  it,  and  in  the  spirit  with  which  we  accept 
it  will  we  wage  it." 

This  straightforward  question  and  declaration  of  war 
seemed  to  suit  the  dignity  of  the  Roman  people  better  than  a 
debate  about  treaty  obligations.  So  it  seemed  before,  and 
more  than  ever  now  that  Saguntum  was  destroyed.  Had  it 
indeed  been  a  matter  to  debate,  how  could  Hasdrubal's  treaty 
be  properly  compared  with  the  earlier  treaty  of  Lutatius,  the 
one  which  was  changed?  For  in  that  treaty  there  was  an 
express  clause  that  it  was  to  be  binding  only  on  condition  of 
being  voted  by  the  commons,  while  in  Hasdrubal's  treaty 
there  was  no  such  exception,  and  the  silence  of  so  many  years 
during  his  lifetime  had  so  thoroughly  ratified  it  that  even  after 
its  author's  death  it  was  not  altered  in  the  least.  Still,  if  they 
were  to  stand  by  the  first  treaty,  the  Saguntines  were  quite 
enough  protected,  as  the  allies  of  both  nations  were  exempted 
from  attack.  Nor  was  there  a  word  to  the  effect,  "  those  who 
were  then  allies,"  or  "  not  such  as  may  be  taken  into  alliance 
hereafter."  And  as  it  was  permitted  to  make  new  allies,  who 
could  think  it  fair  that  they  should  admit  no  one  into  their 


B.  C.  219]  WAR  DECLARED  251 

friendship,  whatever  his  services,  or  that  having  received  peo- 
ple under  their  protection  they  should  not  defend  them,  always 
provided  that  the  allies  of  the  Carthaginians  were  not  either 
to  be  excited  to  revolt,  or  received  as  allies  should  they  revolt 
of  themselves  ? 

The  Roman  envoys,  following  the  instructions  given  them 
at  Rome,  crossed  from  Carthage  into  Spain  with  the  view  of 
visiting  the  Spanish  states  and  drawing  them  into  alliance,  or 
at  least  alienating  them  from  the  Carthaginians.  First  they 
came  to  the  Bargusii,1  who,  being  weary  of  Carthaginian  rule, 
received  them  favourably,  and  thus  they  roused  a  craving  for 
a  change  of  condition  among  several  tribes  beyond  the  Ebro. 
Then  they  went  to  the  Volciani,  whose  answer,  becoming 
famous  throughout  Spain,  set  the  other  tribes  against  the 
Roman  alliance.  Their  oldest  man  gave  the  following  reply 
in  their  council :  "  Where,  Romans,  is  your  sense  of  shame 
that  you  ask  us  to  prefer  your  friendship  to  that  of  the  Car- 
thaginians, when  those  who  have  done  so  have  been  betrayed 
more  cruelly  by  you,  their  allies,  than  they  have  been  destroyed 
by  the  Carthaginian  foe?  Seek  your  allies,  so  I  say,  where 
men  have  never  heard  of  the  destruction  of  Saguntum,  as 
the  ruins  of  that  city  are  a  warning,  as  conspicuous  as  it  is 
grievous,  to  the  tribes  of  Spain  not  to  trust  in  any  case  to 
Roman  faith  and  alliance."  They  were  told  instantly  to  quit 
the  territory  of  the  Volciani,  and  from  not  a  single  assembly 
in  Spain  did  they  subsequently  get  a  more  favourable  answer. 

Having  thus  travelled  through  Spain  with  no  result,  they 
passed  into  Gaul.  Here  they  witnessed  a  strange  and  alarm- 
ing sight.  The  people  came  armed  to  the  assembly — their 
national  custom.  When  the  envoys  extolled  the  glory  and 
valour  of  the  Roman  people,  and  the  greatness  of  their  em- 
pire, and  demanded  that  they  should  not  grant  the  Cartha- 
ginian in  his  invasion  of  Italy  a  passage  through  their  coun- 
try and  its  towns,  there  was  such  a  burst,  it  is  said,  of  hooting 
and  laughter,  that  the  magistrates  and  the  elders  could  hardly 
quiet  the  younger  men;  so  senseless  and  impudent  a  request 
it  seemed,  to  propose  that  the  Gauls,  rather  than  let  the  war 
pass  into  Italy,  should  draw  it  upon  themselves,  and  offer 
their  own  lands  to  the  spoiler  to  save  those  of  others.  At  last 
the  uproar  was  hushed,  and  this  answer  was  given  to  the 
envoys:  That  the  Romans  had  done  them  no  service,  the 
Carthaginians  no  injury,  in  return  for  which  they  need  either 
take  up  arms  for  Rome  or  against  Carthage.  On  the  other 
hand,  they  heard  that  men  of  their  own  race  were  being  driven 
1  Just  north  of  the  Ebro.— D.  O. 


252  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [8.0.219-218 

from  the  lands  and  borders  of  Italy  by  the  Roman  people, 
and  were  paying  tribute  and  suffering  other  indignities. 

Much  the  same  was  said  and  heard  in  all  the  other  assem- 
blies throughout  Gaul,  and  not  a  friendly  or  even  tolerably 
peaceful  answer  was  received  until  they  came  to  Massilia.1 
There  they  got  all  the  information  which  their  allies  had  care- 
fully and  faithfully  acquired  for  them;  that  already  Hannibal 
had  gained  a  hold  on  the  minds  of  the  Gauls,  but  that  even 
he  would  not  find  the  nation  sufficiently  tractable  (so  fierce 
and  untamable  was  its  temper)  unless  he  further  won  the  af- 
fections of  the  chiefs  with  gold,  of  which  the  Gaul  is  intensely 
greedy.  So  the  envoys,  after  visiting  the  tribes  of  Spain  and 
Gaul,  returned  to  Rome  soon  after  the  departure  of  the  consuls 
to  their  provinces.  They  found  the  whole  city  excited  by  its 
anticipation  of  war,  all  accounts  agreeing  that  the  Cartha- 
ginians had  crossed  the  Ebro. 

After  the  taking  of  Saguntum  Hannibal  had  withdrawn 
into  winter  quarters  at  New  Carthage.  Hearing  there  what 
had  been  done  and  decided  on  at  Rome  and  at  Carthage,  and 
that  he  was  himself  the  cause  of  the  war  as  well  as  its  leader, 
he  divided  and  distributed  the  remainder  of  the  booty  in  the 
conviction  that  there  must  be  no  further  delay.  He  then 
called  together  his  soldiers  of  Spanish  blood. 

"  I  think,"  said  he,  "  that  you,  my  allies,  can  see  for  your- 
selves that,  now  that  we  have  reduced  all  the  tribes  of  Spain, 
we  must  end  our  campaigns  and  disband  our  army,  or  else 
carry  the  war  into  other  countries.  For  only  by  our  seeking 
spoil  and  glory  from  other  nations  will  these  tribes  enjoy  the 
fruits  of  victory  as  well  as  of  peace.  And  so,  as  you  are  about 
to  engage  in  a  war  far  away  from  your  homes,  and  it  is  uncer- 
tain when  you  will  again  see  those  homes  and  all  that  is  there 
dear  to  you,  I  grant  leave  of  absence  to  any  one  who  wishes 
to  visit  his  kindred.  I  bid  you  be  present  in  early  spring, 
that  with  the  gods'  good  help  we  may  begin  what  will  be  a 
war  of  prodigious  glory  and  recompense." 

All  or  nearly  all  welcomed  the  spontaneous  offer  of  an  op- 
portunity to  visit  their  homes;  even  then  they  had  a  longing 
to  see  their  kindred,  and  they  foresaw  a  longing  more  pro- 
tracted in  time  to  come.  Rest  during  the  entire  winter  be- 
tween toils  that  already  had  been  or  were  soon  to  be  endured, 
renewed  both  body  and  mind  with  strength  to  encounter 
afresh  every  hardship. 

In  early  spring  they  assembled  according  to  orders.    After 

1  Marseilles.— D.  O. 


B.  c.  218]  ASSIGNING  THE   TROOPS  253 

reviewing  each  tribe's  contingent,  Hannibal  went  to  Gades,1 
where  he  paid  a  vow  to  Hercules,2  and  bound  himself  by  fresh 
vows  should  his  other  schemes  prosper.  Then  dividing  his 
attention  between  a  war  of  attack  and  a  war  of  defence,  he 
resolved  on  securing  Sicily  by  a  strong  force,  so  that  Africa 
might  not  be  open  and  exposed  to  the  Romans  op  that  side, 
while  he  was  himself  advancing  on  Italy  overland  through 
Spain  and  Gaul.  To  take  the  place  of  these  troops  Hannibal 
demanded  for  himself  re-enforcements  from  Africa,  chiefly  of 
light-armed  spearmen,  so  that  Africans  might  serve  in  Spain 
and  Spaniards  in  Africa,  each  set  of  soldiers  being  likely  to 
fight  better  away  from  home,  as  under  the  influence,  so  to 
speak,  of  mutual  obligations.  To  Africa  he  sent  off  thirteen 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty  infantry  with  light  leathern 
shields,  eight  hundred  and  seventy  Balearic  slingers,  and 
twelve  hundred  cavalry,  made  up  from  a  number  of  tribes. 
These  forces  were  by  his  order  partly  to  garrison  Carthage, 
partly  to  be  dispersed  throughout  Africa.  He  likewise  sent 
recruiting  officers  into  the  states,  and  having  raised  a  levy 
of  four  thousand  picked  youth,  directed  that  they  should  be 
marched  to  Carthage,  to  serve  both  as  garrison  troops  and  as 
hostages. 

Spain,  too,  Hannibal  felt,  must  not  be  forgotten,  the  less 
so  indeed  as  he  was  well  aware  that  the  Roman  envoys  had 
travelled  through  the  country  to  sound  the  temper  of  the 
chiefs.  So  he  assigned  the  province  to  his  brother  Hasdrubal, 
a  thoroughly  energetic  man,  and  secured  it  with  troops,  mainly 
African,  that  is,  with  eleven  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty 
infantry  of  African  race,  three  hundred  Ligurians,  and  five 
hundred  Baliarians.  To  this  auxiliary  infantry  were  added 
four  hundred  and  fifty  Libyphcenician  cavalry,  a  race  this  of 
mingled  Carthaginian  and  African  blood,  with  Numidians  and 
Moors,  dwellers  on  the  shores  of  the  ocean,  to  the  number  of 
eight  hundred,  and  a  small  body  of  Ilergetes  3  from  Spain, 
consisting  of  two  hundred  cavalry,  and,  that  no  description 
of  land  force  might  be  wanting,  twenty-one  elephants.  Has- 
drubal had  also  a  fleet  given  him  to  defend  the  coast,  fifty 
five-banked,  two  four-banked,  and  five  three-banked  ships, 
for  it  might  well  be  believed  that  now  again  the  Romans 
would  wage  war  on  the  element  on  which  they  had  already 
been  successful.  But  of  these  only  thirty-two  five-banked, 

1  Now  Cadiz.— D.  O. 

1  Melkarth,  confounded  by  the  Greeks  with  Hercules,  was  the  national 
numen  of  the  Phoenician  race. — D.  O. 

8  These  dwelt  along  the  southern  slope  of  the  Pyrenees. — D.  O. 


254  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  218 

with  the  five  three-banked  ships  were  furnished  and  equipped 
with  crews. 

From  Gades  Hannibal  returned  to  the  winter  quarters  of 
his  army  at  New  Carthage.  Thence  he  led  his  men  by  the 
coast  past  the  town  of  Onusa  to  the  Ebro.  There  he  saw  in 
a  dream,  so  the  story  goes,  a  youth  of  godlike  shape,  who 
said  that  he  had  been  sent  by  Jupiter  to  conduct  the  army 
of  Hannibal  into  Italy;  that  he  was  therefore  to  follow  and 
nowhere  turn  his  eyes  away  from  him.  At  first  Hannibal 
followed  trembling,  neither  looking  around  nor  behind;  after 
a  while,  with  the  natural  curiosity  of  the  human  mind,  as  he 
wondered  what  it  could  be  on  which  he  was  forbidden  to  look 
back,  he  could  not  restrain  his  eyes;  he  then  saw  behind  him 
a  serpent  of  marvellous  size  moving  onward  with  a  fearful 
destruction  of  trees  and  bushes;  close  after  this  followed  a 
storm  cloud  with  crashing  thunder.  When  he  asked  what 
was  the  monster  and  what  the  portent  meant,  he  was  told  it 
was  the  devastation  of  Italy;  let  him  go  straight  on  and  ask 
no  more  questions,  and  leave  the  decrees  of  the  fates  in  dark- 
ness. 

Cheered  by  the  vision,  he  crossed  the  Ebro  with  his  army 
in  three  divisions,  after  having  first  despatched  messengers 
with  gifts  to  gain  the  good-will  of  the  Gauls  in  the  regions 
which  his  army  had  to  traverse,  and  to  reconnoitre  the  passes 
of  the  Alps.  It  was  with  ninety  thousand  infantry  and  twelve 
thousand  cavalry  that  he  crossed  the  Ebro.  Then  he  reduced 
the  Ilergetes,  the  Bargusii,  and  the  Ausetani,  and  also  Lace- 
tania,  a  district  at  the  foot  of  the  Pyrenees.  All  this  country 
he  put  in  charge  of  Hanno,  who  was  to  have  the  control  of 
the  passes  connecting  Spain  and  Gaul.  Hanno  had  ten  thou- 
sand infantry  and  a  thousand  cavalry  given  him  to  garrison 
the  district  which  he  was  to  hold.  At  this  point,  as  soon  as 
the  army  began  its  march  through  the  defiles  of  the  Pyrenees, 
and  more  definite  rumours  of  war  with  Rome  had  spread 
through  the  barbarian  host,  three  thousand  infantry  of  the 
Carpetani  left  him.  It  was  understood  that  what  alarmed 
them  was  not  so  much  the  war  as  the  long  march  and  the 
hopelessness  of  the  passage  of  the  Alps.  As  to  recall  or  de- 
tain them  by  force  would  have  been  a  dangerous  experiment, 
likely  to  exasperate  the  wild  tempers  of  his  other  allies,  Han- 
nibal sent  back  to  their  homes  more  than  seven  thousand 
men,  whom  he  had  also  perceived  to  be  weary  of  the  service, 
and  he  pretended  that  even  the  Carpetani  had  been  dismissed 
by  his  own  act. 

Then,  that  his  men  might  not  feel  the  temptation  occasioned 


B.  C.  2i8]  THE   MARCH  BEGUN  255 

by  delay  or  inaction,  he  crossed  the  Pyrenees  and  encamped  at 
the  town  of  Iliberri.  Though  the  Gauls  understood  that  the  war 
was  directed  against  Italy,  yet,  as  it  was  rumoured  that  the 
Spaniards  beyond  the  Pyrenees  had  been  reduced  by  force  and 
strong  garrisons  set  over  them,  some  of  the  tribes  were  roused 
to  arms  by  the  dread  of  enslavement,  and  assembled  at  Rus- 
cino.  Hannibal  on  being  told  of  this,  as  he  feared  delay  more 
than  defeat,  sent  envoys  to  their  chiefs,  to  say  that  he  wished 
to  have  a  personal  interview  with  them;  they  might  either 
come  nearer  to  Iliberri,  or  he  would  himself  go  to  Ruscino; 
thus  brought  nearer  together  they  could  meet  more  easily. 
"  I  will  gladly,"  he  added,  "  receive  you  in  my  camp,  or  I 
will  go  myself  to  you  without  hesitation,  for  I  have  come  as 
a  friend,  not  an  enemy  to  the  Gauls,  and  will  not  draw  sword, 
unless  the  Gauls  compel  me,  till  I  reach  Italy."  Such  was  the 
message  conveyed  by  the  envoys.  But  when  the  Gallic  chiefs, 
instantly  moving  their  camp  to  Iliberri,  came  without  any 
reluctance  to  Hannibal,  it  was  by  his  gifts  that  they  were 
persuaded  to  let  his  army  march  perfectly  unmolested  through 
their  territories  past  the  town  of  Ruscino. 

In  Italy  meanwhile  nothing  was  known  but  the  bare  fact, 
reported  at  Rome  by  envoys  from  Massilia,  that  Hannibal 
had  crossed  the  Ebro.  At  that  moment,  just  as  if  it  was  the 
Alps  that  had  been  crossed,  the  Boii,  after  sounding  the  In- 
subres,  revolted,  not  so  much  from  old  animosities  against 
Rome,  as  because  they  were  annoyed  at  the  recent  establish- 
ment of  the  colonies  of  Placentia  x  and  Cremona  near  the  Po 
in  Gallic  territory.  Suddenly  they  flew  to  arms,  burst  into 
the  territory  in  dispute  and  spread  such  dismay  and  con- 
fusion that  even  the  three  Roman  commissioners  who  had 
come  to  assign  the  lands,2  Caius  Lutatius,  Caius  Servilius, 
and  Marcus  Annius,  as  well  as  the  rural  population,  dared  not 
trust  themselves  to  the  walls  of  Placentia,  and  took  refuge 
in  Mutina.3  About  the  name  of  Lutatius  there  is  no  question ; 
for  Annius  and  Servilius  some  chronicles  give  the  names  of 
Acilius  and  Herennius,  others  those  of  Cornelius  Asina  and 
Papirius  Maso.  There  is  some  doubt  too  whether  the  envoys 
sent  to  remonstrate  with  the  Boii  were  insulted,  or  whether 
the  commissioners,  as  they  were  measuring  the  lands,  were  at- 
tacked. While  they  were  besieged  in  Mutina,  and  the  Gauls, 
a  people  quite  ignorant  of  the  science  of  assaulting  towns  and 
very  indolent  in  all  military  operations,  sat  idle  without  at- 
tempting to  assail  the  walls,  sham  negotiations  for  peace  were 

1  Modern  Piacenza. — D.  O.  *  That  is,  to  the  colonists. — D.  O. 

1  Modern  Modena. — D.  O. 


256  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  218 

begun.  The  envoys  were  summoned  by  the  Gallic  chiefs  to 
a  conference,  and  there,  contrary  to  all  international  law,  and 
in  actual  violation  of  the  pledge  given  for  the  special  occa- 
sion, were  arrested,  the  Gauls  declaring  that  they  would  not 
let  them  go  unless  their  own  hostages  were  restored. 

On  hearing  of  this  treatment  of  the  envoys,  and  of  the 
danger  of  Mutina  and  its  garrison,  the  praetor,  Lucius  Man- 
lius,  burning  with  anger,  marched  in  loose  order  to  the  place. 
The  road  at  that  time  was  surrounded  with  woods,  and  most 
of  the  country  was  wild.  Manlius  advanced  without  recon- 
noitring, and  fell  headlong  into  an  ambuscade,  out  of  which 
he  struggled  with  difficulty  into  open  ground  after  great  loss 
to  his  men.  There  he  fortified  a  camp,  and  as  the  Gauls  lacked 
confidence  to  assail  it,  the  spirits  of  his  soldiers  revived, 
though  it  was  understood  that  as  many  as  five  hundred  had 
fallen.  He  then  began  his  march  afresh,  nor  did  the  enemy 
show  himself  as  long  as  the  troops  advanced  over  open 
ground;  but  as  soon  as  the  woods  were  once  more  entered, 
the  Gauls  fell  on  the  rear,  spread  the  greatest  confusion  and 
panic  through  all  the  army,  and  cut  down  seven  hundred  men, 
capturing  also  six  standards.  When  they  were  once  clear 
of  the  pathless  and  intricate  forest,  the  Gauls  ceased  to  terrify, 
and  the  Romans  to  feel  alarm.  Thence  through  open  coun- 
try, where  they  marched  easily  and  safely,  they  pushed  on 
to  Tannetum,1  a  district  close  to  the  Po.  There  protected 
by  temporary  intrenchments  and  the  windings  of  the  river, 
with  the  help,  too,  of  the  Brixian  Gauls,  they  defended  them- 
selves against  the  daily  increasing  multitude  of  the  enemy. 

As  soon  as  this  sudden  outbreak  was  reported  at  Rome, 
and  the  senate  heard  that  a  war  with  the  Gauls  was  added  to 
the  war  with  Carthage,  Caius  Atilius,  the  praetor,  was  ordered 
to  re-enforce  Manlius  with  one  Roman  legion  and  five  thou- 
sand allies,  newly  levied  by  the  consul.  Manlius  reached 
Tannetum  without  any  fighting,  as  the  enemy  had  retired  in 
alarm. 

Publius  Cornelius,  too,  having  raised  a  new  legion  in  place 
of  that  which  had  been  despatched  with  the  praetor,  sailed 
from  Rome  with  sixty  war  ships  along  the  coasts  of  Etruria 
and  Liguria,  and  thence  past  the  mountains  of  the  Salyes, 
and  so  arrived  at  Massilia.  He  pitched  his  camp  at  the  near- 
est mouth  of  the  Rhone,  for  that  river  divides  itself  into  sev- 
eral streams  as  it  flows  into  the  sea.  He  then  encamped, 
hardly  believing  that  Hannibal  had  yet  crossed  the  Pyrenees. 
When,  however,  he  understood  that  he  was  actually  medi- 
1  At  or  near  what  is  now  the  village  of  St.  Ilario. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  2 1 8]  AT  THE   RHONE  257 

tating  the  passage  of  the  Rhone,  as  he  did  not  know  where 
he  might  meet  him,  and  his  soldiers  were  not  properly  recov- 
ered from  the  fatigue  of  the  voyage,  he  sent  forward  mean- 
while three  hundred  picked  cavalry  with  some  guides  from 
Massilia  and  from  the  friendly  Gauls  to  reconnoitre  the  whole 
country  and  get  a  safe  view  of  the  enemy. 

By  this  time  Hannibal  had  reached  the  territory  of  the 
Volcae,1  a  powerful  tribe,  after  having  frightened  or  bribed 
all  their  neighbours  into  submission.  They  dwell  on  both 
banks  of  the  Rhone;  but  not  feeling  confidence  that  they 
could  keep  the  Carthaginian  out  of  the  territory  nearest  him, 
and  anxious  to  have  the  stream  as  a  defence,  they  crossed  the 
river  with  almost  their  whole  tribe,  and  occupied  the  further 
bank  in  arms.  The  other  tribes  by  the  Rhone,  and  all  even 
of  this  same  tribe  who  had  clung  to  their  homes,  Hannibal 
bribed  into  collecting  and  building  vessels,  and  it  was  indeed 
their  own  wish  that  his  army  should  cross  and  thereby  relieve 
their  lands  from  the  pressure  of  such  a  multitude.  Thus  an 
immense  -number  of  vessels  and  boats,  roughly  constructed 
for  use  on  the  spot,  were  brought  together.  Then,  too,  the 
Gauls  setting  the  example  of  making  new  boats,  which  they 
hollowed  out  from  single  trees,  the  soldiers  also,  tempted 
by  the  abundance  of  timber  and  the  ease  of  the  work,  hastily 
shaped  out  some  clumsy  hulks  to  convey  themselves  and  their 
belongings  to  the  other  side,  satisfied  if  these  would  only  float 
and  hold  a  cargo. 

And  now  all  was  fairly  ready  for  the  passage,  while  facing 
them  stood  the  enemy  in  menacing  array,  cavalry  and  in- 
fantry, occupying  the  entire  bank.  To  distract  their  attention 
Hannibal  ordered  Hanno,  son  of  Bomilcar,  to  go  with  part  of 
the  army,  chiefly  Spaniards,  one  day's  march  up  the  stream, 
starting  at  the  first  watch  of  the  night,  to  cross  the  river  on 
the  first  opportunity  as  stealthily  as  possible,  and  taking  a 
circuit  to  fall  on  the  enemy's  rear  at  the  required  moment. 
The  Gallic  guides  provided  for  the  purpose,  told  him  that, 
about  twenty-five  miles  higher  up,  the  river  encircled  a  little 
island,  and  could  be  crossed  at  the  point  of  division,  where 
the  channel  was  broader  and  consequently  shallower.  At  this 
place  timber  was  felled  in  eager  haste,  and  rafts  constructed 
for  the  passage  of  men  and  horses  and  other  cargo.  The 
Spaniards,  without  any  trouble,  threw  their  clothes  on  blad- 
ders, laid  their  light  shields  on  these,  and  resting  on  them 
swam  the  stream.  The  rest  of  the  army  crossed  on  a  bridge 
of  rafts;  having  encamped  close  to  the  river  they  recruited 

1  They  dwelt  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Orange. — D.  O, 


258  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  C.  218 

themselves  by  a  day's  repose  after  the  fatigue  of  their  night's 
march  and  laborious  work,  while  their  general  watched  in- 
tently the  opportunity  of  executing  his  plan. 

Next  day  they  advanced,  and  showed  by  some  smoke  from 
an  eminence  that  they  had  crossed  and  were  not  far  off.  Han- 
nibal seeing  this,  not  to  miss  his  opportunity,  gave  the  signal 
for  crossing.  His  infantry  now  had  their  light  boats  ready  and 
in  order,  and  his  cavalry  had  larger  rafts  chiefly  on  account 
of  the  horses.  A  line  of  vessels  was  thrown  across  higher  up 
to  sustain  the  force  of  the  current,  and  so  gave  smooth  water 
to  the  boats  which  were  crossing  below;  many  of  the  horses 
as  they  swam  were  towed  by  leathern  thongs  from  the  sterns, 
beside  those  which  had  been  put  on  board,  saddled  and  bridled 
and  ready  for  their  riders  as  soon  as  they  had  landed. 

The  Gauls  on  the  bank  rushed  at  them  with  all  manner 
of  cries  and  their  customary  war  songs,  waving  their  shields 
over  their  heads  and  brandishing  javelins  in  their  right  hands, 
though  confronting  them  was  this  threatening  array  of  vessels, 
with  the  terrific  roar  of  the  water  and  the  confused  shouts 
of  sailors  and  soldiers,  some  of  whom  were  struggling  to  stem 
the  force  of  the  stream,  while  others  on  the  opposite  shore 
were  cheering  on  their  comrades  as  they  crossed.  Disturbed 
as  they  were  already  at  the  alarming  scene  before  their  eyes, 
a  yet  more  appalling  din  fell  on  their  ears  from  the  rear,  where 
Hanno  had  taken  their  camp.  In  another  moment  he  was 
himself  on  the  spot.  On  either  side  they  were  beset  with 
peril,  for  a  vast  array  of  armed  men  was  landing  from  the 
vessels,  and  a  host  was  unexpectedly  pressing  them  in  their 
rear.  The  Gauls,  repulsed  in  their  attempt  to  fight  a  double 
battle,  broke  through  where  the  way  seemed  most  open,  and 
fled  in  wild  panic  to  their  villages.  Hannibal  crossed  with 
the  rest  of  his  army  at  his  leisure,  and  encamped,  henceforth 
heartily  despising  any  menaces  from  the  Gauls. 

For  the  passage  of  the  elephants  there  were,  I  believe, 
various  devices.  At  any  rate  there  are  various  traditions  how 
it  was  accomplished.  Some  say  that  the  elephants  were 
crowded  together  on  the  bank,  that  here  the  fiercest  of  them, 
provoked  by  its  driver,  pursued  the  man  as  he  retreated  into 
the  water,  and  drew  the  whole  herd  after  it;  afterward  the 
simple  force  of  the  stream  carried  them  all  to  the  opposite 
bank,  as  they  lost  their  footing  one  by  one  in  their  terror  at 
the  depth.  It  is,  however,  more  generally  understood  that 
they  were  transported  on  rafts;  such  a  plan  would  have 
seemed  safer  beforehand,  as  afterward  it  is  certainly  more 
credible.  A  raft  two  hundred  feet  long  and  fifty  broad  was 


B.  C.  218]  CROSSING  THE   RIVER  259 

extended  from  the  bank  into  the  water,  and,  to  save  it  from 
being  carried  down  the  stream,  it  was  attached  to  a  point  up 
the  river  by  a  number  of  strong  hawsers,  and  then  covered 
like  a  bridge  with  a  layer  of  earth,  so  that  the  beasts  might 
walk  on  it  as  confidently  as  if  it  were  firm  ground.  To  this 
was  fastened  another  raft  of  equal  breadth,  a  hundred  feet 
long,  suitable  for  being  ferried  across ;  then  the  elephants  were 
driven,  the  females  taking  the  lead,  along  the  stationary  raft, 
as  if  it  were  a  road.  When  they  had  passed  on  to  the  smaller 
raft  attached  to  it,  the  ropes  with  which  this  was  slightly 
fastened  were  instantly  untied,  and  it  was  towed  to  the  oppo- 
site bank  by  some  light  craft.  In  this  way  as  soon  as  the  first 
had  been  landed,  the  rest  were  fetched  and  conveyed  across. 
They  showed  no  alarm  while  they  were  moving  on  what 
seemed  a  bridge  connected  with  the  land;  the  first  panic  was 
when  the  raft  was  detached  from  its  surroundings,  and  they 
were  carried  into  the  deep  channel.  Then  pressing  one  on 
another,  as  those  on  the  edge  drew  back  from  the  water,  they 
showed  decided  signs  of  terror,  until  their  very  fear  at  the 
sight  of  the  water  all  around  them  made  them  quiet.  Some 
in  their  fury  fell  off  into  the  stream,  but  their  weight  kept 
them  steady,  and  shaking  off  their  drivers  and  feeling  their 
way  into  shallow  water  they  reached  land. 

During  the  passage  of  the  elephants,  Hannibal  sent  five 
hundred  Numidian  cavalry  to  the  Roman  camp  to  reconnoitre 
and  ascertain  the  position,  the  strength,  and  the  plans  of  their 
army.  The  three  hundred  Roman  cavalry  which  had  been 
despatched,  as  before  related,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Rhone, 
fell  in  with  this  squadron.  A  battle,  fierce  out  of  proportion 
to  the  number  of  the  combatants,  ensued.  There  were  many 
wounded  and  an  almost  equal  number  killed  on  both  sides, 
and  the  Romans  were  thoroughly  exhausted  when  the  flight 
and  panic  of  the  Numidians  gave  them  the  victory.  Of  the 
victors  there  fell  about  a  hundred  and  sixty,  not  all  Romans, 
some  being  Gauls;  of  the  vanquished  more  than  two  hundred. 
Here  was  at  once  a  prelude  and  an  omen  of  the  war,  por- 
tending indeed  to  Rome  success  in  the  final  issue,  but  a  vic- 
tory far  from  bloodless,  to  be  won  after  a  doubtful  struggle. 

On  the  return  of  the  men  after  this  battle  to  their  re- 
spective generals,  Scipio  could  form  no  resolution  but  to  adapt 
his  plans  to  the  designs  and  movements  of  the  enemy,  and 
Hannibal  also  was  in  doubt  whether  he  should  persist  in  the 
advance  toward  Italy  which  he  had  begun,  or  should  fight 
the  Roman  army,  which  had  been  the  first  to  encounter  him. 
He  was  deterred  from  immediate  battle  by  the  arrival  of 


26o  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  218 

envoys  from  the  Boii,  and  their  chief  Magalus,  who  declared 
that  they  would  be  his  guides  in  all  his  marches,  and  his 
comrades  in  danger,  while  they  maintained  that  he  must  at- 
tack Italy  with  all  the  resources  of  his  arms  and  with  strength 
unimpaired.  The  mass,  indeed,  of  the  army  dreaded  the 
enemy,  for  they  had  not  yet  forgotten  the  last  war,  but  they 
feared  still  more  the  endless  march  over  the  Alps,  which 
rumours  had  made  terrible,  at  any  rate  to  the  inexperienced. 
Hannibal  accordingly,  his  resolve  now  being  fixed  to  pur- 
sue his  march  and  to  advance  on  Italy,  assembled  his  men 
and  worked  on  their  feelings  by  the  various  methods  of  re- 
proof and  encouragement.  "  I  wonder,"  said  he,  "  what  sud- 
den panic  can  have  seized  hearts  ever  fearless?  For  many 
a  year  have  you  fought  and  conquered;  nor  did  you  quit 
Spain  till  all  the  tribes  and  countries  embraced  between  two 
distant  seas  were  under  Carthaginian  sway.  Then,  in  your 
wrath  at  the  demand  of  the  Roman  people  for  the  surrender 
as  criminals  of  the  besiegers  of  Saguntum,  whoever  they  might 
be,  you  crossed  the  Ebro  to  blot  out  the  name  of  Rome  and 
to  give  freedom  to  the  world.  Not  a  man  of  you  thought 
the  march  too  long,  which  you  were  then  beginning,  from  the 
setting  to  the  rising  sun;  now,  when  you  see  far  the  greatest 
portion  of  it  actually  traversed — the  passes  of  the  Pyrenees 
surmounted  amid  the  fiercest  tribes — the  Rhone,  that  broad 
river,  crossed  in  the  face  of  many  thousand  Gauls,  and  the 
very  force  of  the  stream  itself  vanquished — when  you  have  in 
sight  the  Alps  the  other  side  of  which  is  in  Italy — here,  at 
the  very  gates  of  the  enemy,  you  are  halting  in  weariness. 
What  do  you  imagine  the  Alps  to  be  but  mountain  heights? 
Suppose  them  to  be  loftier  than  the  ranges  of  the  Pyrenees, 
surely  there  is  no  spot  on  earth  which  touches  heaven  or  is 
an  insuperable  barrier  to  man.  As  for  the  Alps,  they  are 
inhabited  and  cultivated;  they  produce  and  rear  living  crea- 
tures; their  gorges  are  passable  for  armies.  Those  very  en- 
voys, whom  you  see,  were  not  wafted  aloft  on  wings  across 
them;  neither  were  their  ancestors  natives  of  the  country; 
they  were  foreign  settlers  in  Italy,  who  often  in  vast  troops, 
with  their  wives  and  children,  as  is  the  habit  of  emigrants, 
safely  crossed  these  very  Alps.  To  the  armed  soldier,  who 
carries  naught  but  the  implements  of  war,  what  is  impassable 
or  insurmountable?  What  danger,  what  toil  for  six  months 
did  we  not  undergo  to  take  Saguntum?  Aiming  as  we  are 
at  Rome,  the  capital  of  the  world,  can  we  think  anything  so 
formidable  and  arduous  as  to  delay  our  enterprise?  The 
Gauls  once  captured  what  the  Carthaginian  despairs  of  ap- 


B.  c.  218]  AMONG  THE   ALLOBROGES  261 

preaching.  Either  then  yield  in  spirit  and  in  valour  to  a  peo- 
ple whom  in  these  days  you  have  so  repeatedly  vanquished, 
or  look  forward  to  the  plain  between  the  Tiber  and  the  walls 
of  Rome  as  the  goal  of  your  expedition." 

Having  inspirited  them  with  these  words  of  encourage- 
ment, Hannibal  bade  them  refresh  themselves  and  prepare 
for  their  march.  Next  day  he  advanced  up  the  Rhone  toward 
the  interior  of  Gaul,  not  because  this  was  the  more  direct 
route  to  the  Alps,  but  thinking  that  the  further  he  withdrew 
from  the  sea,  the  less  likely  he  was  to  encounter  the  Romans, 
whom  it  was  not  his  intention  to  engage  till  his  arrival  in  Italy. 
In  four  days'  march  he  reached  the  Island.  Here  the  Isere 
and  the  Rhone,  which  pour  down  their  waters  from  Alpine 
summits  far  apart,  and  embrace  a  large  stretch  of  country, 
unite  in  one  stream,  and  the  plains  between  have  received 
the  name  of  the  Island.  In  the  neighbourhood  are  settled 
the  Allobroges,  a  tribe  even  at  that  time  inferior  to  none 
of  the  tribes  of  Gaul  in  resources  or  renown.  They  were 
then  at  strife.  Two  brothers  were  contending  for  the 
throne.  The  elder,  who  had  previously  been  king,  Brancus 
by  name,  was  now  being  thrust  aside  by  his  younger  brother, 
and  a  party  of  the  younger  men,  who  had  more  might  than 
right  on  their  side.  The  settlement  of  the  feud  was  very  op- 
portunely referred  to  Hannibal,  and  he  having  thus  to  dispose 
of  the  kingdom  restored  the  elder  brother  to  power,  such 
having  been  the  feeling  of  the  senate  and  the  chiefs.  For 
this  service  he  was  helped  with  supplies  and  an  abundance  of 
all  things,  clothing  especially,  which  the  notorious  horrors 
of  the  cold  in  the  Alps  compelled  him  to  provide. 

Having  composed  the  feud  of  the  Allobroges,  Hannibal 
marched  toward  the  Alps,  not,  however,  pursuing  a  direct 
course,  but  turning  leftward  to  the  country  of  the  Tricastini, 
from  which  again  he  passed  to  that  of  the  Tricorii,  along  the 
extreme  frontier  of  the  Vocontii,  a  route  at  no  point  em- 
barrassing till  he  reached  the  river  Druentia.1  One  of  the 
rivers  of  the  Alps,  it  is  naturally  far  the  most  difficult  to  cross 
of  all  the  streams  in  Gaul;  for  though  it  rushes  down  with  a 
vast  body  of  water,  it  is  not  navigable,  not  being  confined 
within  banks,  and  flowing  in  many  channels  at  once,  and  these 
not  always  the  same.  Its  ever-changing  shallows  and  eddies, 
which  make  the  passage  perplexing  even  to  one  on  foot,  and 
the  rocks  and  gravelly  bed  over  which  it  rolls,  allow  no  sure 

1  This  is  the  modern  Durance,  but  the  uncertainty  as  to  the  line  of 
Hannibal's  march  begins  here.  Had  he  followed  the  course  indicated  he 
would  not  have  met  the  Durance. — D.  O. 


262  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  218 

and  safe  foothold.  At  this  time  it  happened  to  be  swollen 
by  rains,  and  so  caused  much  confusion  among  the  men  as 
they  crossed — a  confusion  increased  by  other  alarms,  and  by 
their  own  haste  and  bewildered  cries. 

About  three  days  after  Hannibal  had  moved  from  the 
Rhone,  the  consul  Publius  Cornelius  reached  the  enemy's 
camp  with  his  army  in  order  of  battle,  resolved  to  fight  with- 
out a  moment's  delay.  Seeing,  however,  that  the  lines  were 
abandoned,  and  that  the  enemy  must  be  too  far  ahead  to  be 
easily  overtaken,  he  went  back  to  the  sea  and  to  his  ships, 
assured  that  he  could  thus  more  safely  and  conveniently  en- 
counter Hannibal  on  his  descent  from  the  Alps.  But  not  to 
leave  Spain,  his  allotted  province,  bare  of  Roman  defence,  he 
sent  his  brother  Cneius  Scipio  with  the  largest  part  of  his 
army  against  Hasdrubal,  not  merely  to  protect  our  old  allies 
and  form  fresh  alliances,  but  actually  to  drive  Hasdrubal  out 
of  the  country.  Scipio  himself  with  quite  a  small  force  re- 
turned to  Genua,1  purposing  to  defend  Italy  with  the  troops 
encamped  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Po. 

From  the  Druentia  Hannibal  marched  through  a  country 
generally  flat  to  the  Alps,  wholly  unmolested  by  the  Gauls  in 
those  parts.  And  then,  though  rumour  which  usually  mag- 
nifies the  unknown  far  beyond  truth  had  given  some  anticipa- 
tion of  the  facts,  still  the  near  sight  of  the  mountain  heights 
with  their  snows  almost  mingling  with  the  sky,  the  rude  huts 
perched  on  the  rocks,  cattle  and  beasts  of  burden  shrivelled 
with  cold,  human  beings  unkempt  and  wild,  and  all  things 
animate  and  inanimate  stiffened  with  frost,  with  other  scenes 
more  horrible  to  behold  than  to  describe,  revived  the  terror  of 
the  soldiers. 

As  the  vanguard  was  struggling  up  the  first  slopes,  the 
mountain  tribes  showed  themselves  on  the  overhanging  hills. 
Had  they  lain  hid  in  some  of  the  obscurer  valleys  and  sud- 
denly rushed  out  to  the  attack,  they  must  have  caused  terrible 
panic  and  loss.  Hannibal  ordered  a  halt,  and  the  Gauls  were 
sent  on  to  reconnoitre.  When  he  ascertained  that  here  there  was 
no  passage  for  his  troops,  he  pitched  his  camp  in  the  broadest 
valley  he  could  find,  where  the  country  all  around  was  rugged 
and  precipitous.  Then  from  those  same  Gauls,  mingling  and 
conversing  with  the  mountaineers,  whom  indeed  in  language 

1  On  the  site  of  the  modern  Genoa.  It  is  mentioned  here  for  the 
first  time  in  history.  Its  situation  rendered  it  the  key  to  Liguria  and 
Cisalpine  Gaul.  As  a  Roman  municipium  it  became  a  centre  for  the  com- 
merce of  the  district,  but  does  not  appear  to  have  been  a  place  of  first-rate 
importance. 


B.  C.  218]  CROSSING  THE  ALPS  263 

and  manners  they  resembled,  he  learned  that  it  was  only  by 
day  that  the  pass  was  barred,  and  that  at  night  all  dispersed 
to  their  various  dwellings.  With  early  dawn  he  advanced  to 
the  foot  of  the  hills,  as  if  he  meant  to  push  his  way  by  force 
in  open  day  through  the  defiles.  In  this  feint,  preparing  a 
movement  not  really  intended,  the  day  was  spent,  and  the 
camp  was  fortified  on  the  spot  on  which  it  had  been  pitched. 
But  the  moment  Hannibal  saw  the  mountaineers  coming 
down  from  the  hills  and  the  outposts  weakly  manned,  he  had 
a  multitude  of  fires  lit  for  show,  greater  than  would  correspond 
with  the  number  of  troops  in  camp,  and  then  leaving  behind 
him  the  baggage  with  the  cavalry  as  well  as  the  greater  part 
of  the  infantry,  and  taking  with  him  some  lightly  armed  men, 
the  bravest  he  could  pick,  he  rapidly  mounted  the  passes  and 
established  himself  on  the  very  hills  which  the  enemy  had 
occupied. 

At  daybreak  the  camp  was  broken  up  and  the  rest  of  the 
army  began  to  move.  The  mountaineers  on  a  signal  given 
were  now  gathering  in  force  from  their  fortresses  to  one  of 
their  regular  positions,  when  suddenly  they  saw  the  enemy, 
some  on  the  heights  over  their  heads  and  in  possession  of 
their  own  stronghold,  the  remainder  marching  through  the 
pass.  The  double  impression  thus  made  on  their  sight  and 
imagination  held  them  for  a  brief  while  rooted  to  the  earth. 
Soon,  when  they  saw  the  hurry  in  the  defiles,  and  how  the 
army  was  in  utter  confusion  from  its  own  disorder,  the  horses 
especially  being  wild  with  fright,  they  thought  that,  could 
they  in  any  way  increase  the  panic,  it  would  insure  the  ene- 
my's destruction,  and  rushed  down  the  face  of  the  rocks  they 
knew  so  well,  whether  along  pathless  steeps  or  obscure  tracks. 
Then  indeed  both  the  foe  and  the  perils  of  the  place  fought 
against  the  Carthaginians,  and  while  every  man  strove  for  him- 
self to  get  soonest  out  of  danger,  there  was  more  struggling 
among  the  soldiers  themselves  than  between  them  and  the 
enemy.  The  horses  were  the  most  dangerous  hindrance  to  the 
army.  They  were  terrified  and  scared  by  the  confused  cries 
which  the  woods  and  echoing  valleys  further  multiplied,  and 
if  they  chanced  to  be  struck  and  wounded,  in  the  wildness  of 
their  terror  they  made  fearful  havoc  alike  among  the  men 
and  the  baggage  of  every  description.  The  pressure,  too,  in 
the  defile,  each  side  of  which  was  a  sheer  precipice,  hurled 
numbers  down  to  an  immense  depth,  and  among  them  were 
soldiers  with  their  accoutrements;  but  it  was  more  particu- 
larly the  beasts  with  their  burdens,  which  rolled  down  with 
just  such  a  crash  as  a  falling  house. 


264  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [u.  €.218 

Horrible  as  all  this  was  to  behold,  Hannibal  halted  a  while 
and  kept  his  men  in  their  ranks,  so  as  not  to  aggravate  the  dis- 
order and  panic,  and  then,  as  soon  as  he  saw  a  break  in  the 
line,  and  the  danger  that  the  army  might  accomplish  the 
passage  safely  indeed  but  to  no  purpose,  because  stripped 
of  all  their  baggage,  he  hurried  down  from  his  position  on 
the  heights  and  routed  the  enemy,  but  at  the  same  time  in- 
creased the  confusion  of  his  own  troops.  This  confusion, 
however,  was  quieted  in  a  moment  when  the  flight  of  the 
mountaineers  left  the  roads  clear,  and  all  soon  marched 
through  the  pass  not  merely  in  peace  but  almost  in  silence. 
Next  he  took  a  fortress,  the  capital  of  the  district,  and  some 
villages  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  fed  his  troops  for  three 
days  on  the  corn  and  cattle  he  had  seized.  In  those  three 
days  he  accomplished  a  considerable  march,  as  there  was  not 
much  hindrance  from  the  ground  or  from  the  mountaineers, 
whom  they  had  cowed  at  the  outset. 

Then  they  reached  a  canton,  which,  for  a  mountain  dis- 
trict, was  densely  peopled.  Here  Hannibal  was  all  but  cut 
off,  not  by  open  fighting,  but  by  his  own  peculiar  arts,  treach- 
ery and  ambuscade.  Some  old  men,  governors  of  the  for- 
tresses, came  to  him  as  envoys,  with  assurances  that  warned 
by  the  salutary  examples  of  the  misfortunes  of  others,  they 
preferred  to  make  trial  of  the  friendship  rather  than  of  the 
might  of  the  Carthaginians ;  that  thereupon  they  would  obedi- 
ently do  his  bidding;  and  they  begged  him  to  accept  sup- 
plies, guides  for  his  march,  and  hostages  as  a  guarantee  of 
their  promises.  Hannibal,  feeling  that  he  must  not  either 
rashly  trust  or  slight  them,  lest  refusal  might  make  them  open 
enemies,  gave  them  a  gracious  answer.  He  accepted  the  of- 
fered hostages,  and  used  the  supplies  which  they  had  them- 
selves brought  to  the  road,  but  he  followed  the  guides  with 
his  army  in  fighting  order,  not  as  if  he  was  among  a  friendly 
people.  His  van  was  formed  of  the  elephants  and  cavalry, 
while  he  marched  himself  in  the  rear  with  the  main  strength 
of  the  infantry,  anxiously  reconnoitring  at  every  step.  The 
moment  they  entered  a  narrow  pass,  dominated  on  one  side 
by  an  overhanging  height,  the  barbarians  sprang  out  of  their 
ambuscades  in  every  direction,  attacking  in  front  and  rear, 
discharging  missiles  and  coming  to  close  quarters,  and  roll- 
ing down  huge  stones  upon  the  army.  It  was  on  the  rear 
that  the  enemy  pressed  in  greatest  force.  The  infantry  col- 
umn wheeled  and  faced  him;  but  it  was  proved  beyond  a 
doubt  that,  had  not  the  rear  been  well  strengthened,  a  terrible 
disaster  would  have  been  sustained  in  that  pass.  Even  as  it 


B.  c.  2 1 8]           FIGHTING  THE  MOUNTAINEERS  265 

was,  they  were  brought  to  the  extremest  jeopardy,  and  were 
within  a  hair's  breadth  of  destruction.  For  while  Hannibal 
was  hesitating  about  sending  his  men  into  the  defile  because, 
though  he  could  himself  support  the  cavalry,  he  had  no  reserve 
in  his  rear  for  the  infantry,  the  mountaineers  rushed  on  his 
flanks,  and  having  cut  his  line  in  half  barred  his  advance.  One 
night  he  had  to  pass  without  his  cavalry  and  his  baggage. 

Next  day,  as  the  barbarians  were  less  active  in  their  at- 
tacks, the  army  was  again  united,  and  fought  its  way  through 
the  pass,  but  not  without  loss,  which,  however,  fell  more 
heavily  on  the  beasts  of  burden  than  on  the  men.  From  this 
point  the  mountaineers  became  less  numerous;  hovering 
round  more  like  brigands  than  soldiers,  they  threatened  now 
the  van,  now  the  rear,  whenever  the  ground  gave  them  a 
chance,  or  stragglers  in  advance  or  behind  offered  an  oppor- 
tunity. The  elephants,  though  it  was  a  tedious  business  to 
drive  them  along  the  narrow  precipitous  passes,  at  least  pro- 
tected the  troops  from  the  enemy  wherever  they  went,  in- 
spiring as  they  did,  a  peculiar  fear  in  all  who  were  unused  to 
approach  them. 

On  the  ninth  day  they  reached  the  top  of  the  Alps,  passing 
for  the  most  part  over  trackless  steeps,  and  by  devious  ways, 
into  which  they  were  led  by  the  treachery  of  their  guides. 
Two  days  they  encamped  on  the  height,  and  the  men,  worn 
out  with  hardships  and  fighting,  were  allowed  to  rest.  Some 
beasts  of  burden  too  which  had  fallen  down  among  the  crags, 
found  their  way  to  the  camp  by  following  the  army's  track. 
The  men  were  already  worn  out  and  wearied  with  their  many 
miseries,  when  a  fall  of  snow  coming  with  the  setting  of 
the  Pleiades  added  to  their  sufferings  a  terrible  fear.  At  day- 
break the  march  was  resumed,  and  as  the  army  moved  wearily 
over  ground  all  buried  in  snow,  languor  and  despair  were  vis- 
ibly written  on  every  face,  when  Hannibal  stepped  to  the  front, 
and  having  ordered  a  halt  on  a  peak  which  commanded  a  wide 
and  distant  prospect,  pointed  to  Italy  and  to  the  plains  round 
the  Po,  as  they  lay  beneath  the  heights  of  the  Alps,  telling  his 
men,  "  'Tis  the  walls  not  of  Italy  only  but  of  Rome  itself  that 
you  are  now  scaling.  What  remains,"  he  added,  "  will  be  a 
smooth  descent ;  in  one,  or  at  the  most,  in  two  battles  we  shall 
have  the  citadel  and  capital  of  Italy  in  our  grasp  and  power." 

The  army  then  began  to  advance,  and  now  even  the  enemy 
attempted  nothing  but  some  stealthy  ambuscades,  as  oppor- 
tunity offered.  The  remainder,  however,  of  the  march  proved 
far  more  difficult  than  the  ascent,  as  the  Alps  for  the  most 
part  on  the  Italian  side  have  a  shorter  and  therefore  a  steeper 


266  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  218 

slope.  In  fact  the  whole  way  was  precipitous,  narrow,  and 
slippery,  so  much  so  that  they  could  not  keep  themselves  from 
falling,  nor  could  those  who  had  once  stumbled  maintain  their 
foothold.  Thus  they  tumbled  one  over  another  and  the  beasts 
of  burden  over  the  men. 

Next  they  came  to  a  much  narrower  pass  with  walls  of 
rock  so  perpendicular  that  a  light-armed  soldier  could  hardly 
let  himself  down  by  feeling  his  way,  and  grasping  with  his 
hands  the  bushes  and  roots  sticking  out  around  him.  The 
place  of  old  was  naturally  precipitous,  and  now  by  a  recent 
landslip  it  had  broken  away  sheer  to  a  depth  of  a  thousand 
feet.  Here  the  cavalry  halted,  as  if  it  must  be  the  end  of  their 
route,  and  Hannibal  wondering  what  delayed  the  march,  was 
told  that  the  rock  was  impassable.  Then  he  went  himself 
to  examine  the  spot.  There  seemed  to  be  no  doubt  that  he 
must  lead  his  army  round  by  pathless  and  hitherto  untrodden 
slopes,  however  tedious  might  be  the  circuit.  This  route, 
however,  was  impracticable;  for  while  on  last  season's  still  un- 
melted  snow  lay  a  fresh  layer  of  moderate  depth,  where  the 
foot  of  the  first  comer  found  a  good  hold  on  the  soft  and  not 
very  deep  drift,  as  soon  as  it  had  been  once  trampled  down 
under  the  march  of  such  a  host  of  men  and  beasts,  they  had 
to  walk  on  the  bare  ice  beneath,  and  the  liquid  mud  from  the 
melting  snow.  Here  there  was  a  horrible  struggle.  The  slip- 
pery ice  allowed  no  firm  foothold,  and  indeed  betrayed  the 
foot  all  the  more  quickly  on  the  slope,  so  that  whether  a  man 
helped  himself  to  rise  by  his  hands  or  knees,  his  supports  gave 
way,  and  he  fell  again.  And  here  there  were  no  stalks  or 
roots  to  which  hand  or  foot  could  cling.  Thus  there  was  in- 
cessant rolling  on  nothing  but  smooth  ice  or  slush  of  snow. 
The  beasts  broke  through,  occasionally  treading  down  even 
to  the  very  lowest  layer  of  snow,  and  when  they  fell,  as  they 
wildly  struck  out  with  their  hoofs  in  their  efforts  to  rise,  they 
cut  clean  to  the  bottom,  till  many  of  them  stuck  fast  in  the 
hard  and  deep  frozen  ice,  as  if  caught  in  a  trap. 

At  last,  when  both  men  and  beasts  were  worn  out  with 
fruitless  exertion,  they  encamped  on  a  height,  in  a  spot  which 
with  the  utmost  difficulty  they  had  cleared;  so  much  snow 
had  to  be  dug  out  and  removed.  The  soldiers  were  then 
marched  off  to  the  work  of  making  a  road  through  the  rock, 
as  there  only  was  a  passage  possible.  Having  to  cut  into  the 
stone,  they  heaped  up  a  huge  pile  of  wood  from  great  trees  in 
the  neighbourhood,  which  they  had  felled  and  lopped.  As 
soon  as  there  was  strength  enough  in  the  wind  to  create  a 
blaze  they  lighted  the  pile,  and  melted  the  rocks,  as  they 


B.  C.  218]  MELTING   THE   ROCKS  267 

heated,  by  pouring  vinegar  on  them.  The  burning  stone  was 
cleft  open  with  iron  implements,  and  then  they  relieved  the 
steepness  of  the  slopes  by  gradual  winding  tracks,  so  that  even 
the  elephants  as  well  as  the  other  beasts  could  be  let  down. 
Four  days  were  spent  in  this  rocky  pass,  and  the  beasts  almost 
perished  of  hunger,  as  the  heights  generally  are  quite  bare, 
and  such  herbage  as  grows  is  buried  in  snow.  Amid  the 
lower  slopes  were  valleys,  sunny  hills  too,  and  streams,  and 
woods  beside  them,  and  spots  now  at  last  more  worthy  to  be 
the  habitations  of  man.  Here  they  sent  the  beasts  to  feed, 
and  the  men  worn  out  with  the  toil  of  road-making,  were 
allowed  to  rest.  In  the  next  three  days  they  reached  level 
ground,  and  now  the  country  was  less  wild,  as  was  also  the 
character  of  the  inhabitants. 

Such  on  the  whole  was  the  march  which  brought  them 
to  Italy,  in  the  fifth  month,  according  to  some  authors,  after 
leaving  New  Carthage,  the  passage  of  the  Alps  having  occu- 
pied fifteen  days.  As  to  the  numbers  of  Hannibal's  army  on 
his  arrival  in  Italy,  historians  are  not  agreed.  The  highest 
reckoning  is  a  hundred  thousand  infantry  and  twenty  thou- 
sand cavalry ;  the  lowest  twenty  thousand  infantry  and  six 
thousand  cavalry.  Cincius  Alimentus,  who  tells  us  that  he 
was  taken  prisoner  by  Hannibal,  would  have  the  greatest 
weight  with  me,  did  he  not  confuse  the  numbers  by  adding  the 
Gauls  and  Ligurians.  Including  these  there  arrived  eighty 
thousand  infantry  and  ten  thousand  cavalry,  though  it  is  more 
probable  that  they  flocked  to  his  standard  in  Italy ;  and  so 
some  writers  state.  Cincius  says  that  Hannibal  himself  told 
him  that,  after  crossing  the  Rhone,  he  lost  thirty-six  thousand 
men,  and  a  vast  number  of  horses  and  beasts  of  burden.  The 
tribe  that  he  first  encountered  on  his  descent  into  Italy  were 
the  Taurini,1  a  half  Gallic  race.  About  this  all  agree,  and  there- 
fore I  am  the  more  surprised  at  there  being  a  controversy  as 
to  where  Hannibal  crossed  the  Alps,  and  at  the  vulgar  be- 
lief that  he  marched  over  the  Poenine  Pass,  and  that  the  range 
thence  got  its  name.  I  wonder,  too,  that  Caelius  says  that  he 
crossed  by  the  heights  of  Cremo.  Both  these  passes  would 
have  brought  him,  not  to  the  Taurini,  but  through  other 
mountain  tribes  to  the  Libuan  Gauls.  Nor  is  it  likely  that 
those  routes  to  Gaul  were  then  open ;  certainly  those  which 
lead  to  the  Poenine  would  have  been  barred  by  tribes  of  half- 
German  race.  And  assuredly  these  mountains,  according  to 
the  Seduni  and  Veragri,  the  inhabitants  of  the  range,  did 
not  get  their  name,  if  such  an  argument  has  any  weight,  from 
1  From  whom  Turin  takes  its  name. — D.  O. 


268  LIVY'S   ROMAN    HISTORY  [B.  C.  218 

any  passage  of  the  Poeni,  but  from  the  deity  to  whom  the  sum- 
mit is  sacred,  and  whom  the  mountaineers  call  Pceninus.1 

Very  opportunely  for  the  opening  of  the  campaign,  war 
had  broken  out  between  the  Taurini,  the  nearest  tribe,  and 
the  Insubres.  But  Hannibal  could  not  get  his  army  ready 
to  help  either  side,  for  it  was  in  recovering  itself  that  it  felt 
most  keenly  the  miseries  which  had  accumulated  on  it.  Ease 
after  hardship,  plenty  after  want,  comfort  after  squalor  and 
filth  acted  variously  on  their  neglected  and  well-nigh  brutal- 
ized frames.  This  was  enough  to  make  the  consul  Publius 
Cornelius  march  rapidly  to  the  Po,  as  soon  he  had  reached 
Pisae  by  sea,  though  the  troops  which  he  took  over  from 
Manlius  and  Atilius  were  raw  levies,  still  cowed  by  recent  dis- 
graces. He  desired  to  engage  the  enemy  before  he  had  recov- 
ered himself.  But  by  the  time  that  he  had  arrived  at  Placentia, 
Hannibal  had  moved  from  his  camp,  and  had  stormed  one  of 
the  towns  of  the  Taurini,  the  capital  of  the  tribe,  as  the  citi- 
zens chose  to  decline  his  friendship.  He  would  have  secured 
the  alliance  of  the  Gauls  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Po,  not 
merely  by  intimidation  but  with  their  own  consent,  had  not  the 
consul's  sudden  arrival  surprised  them,  as  they  were  looking 
out  for  an  opportunity  of  revolt.  Hannibal  at  the  same  mo- 
ment left  the  Taurini,  feeling  that  the  Gauls,  in  their  uncer- 
tainty which  side  they  ought  to  take,  would  range  themselves 
on  that  of  the  successful. 

The  two  armies  were  now  nearly  in  sight  of  each  other, 
and  the  generals  had  almost  met,  each  penetrated  with  a  cer- 
tain admiration  for  his  antagonist,  though  as  yet  he  knew  but 
little  of  him.  Hannibal's  name,  indeed,  even  before  the  fall  of 
Saguntum,  was  familiar  to  the  Romans,  while  Scipio  was  re- 
garded by  Hannibal  as  an  eminent  man,  from  the  simple  fact 
that  he  had  been  singled  out  for  command  against  himself. 
And  now  they  had  risen  in  each  other's  esteem :  Scipio,  be- 
cause, though  left  in  Gaul,  he  had  confronted  Hannibal  on  his 
descent  into  Italy;  Hannibal,  because  he  had  attempted  and 
accomplished  the  passage  of  the  Alps.  Scipio,  however,  was 
the  first  to  cross  the  Po.  He  moved  his  camp  to  the  river 
Ticinus,  and  before  leading  his  men  into  action  delivered  the 
following  harangue  for  their  encouragement : 

"  Soldiers,  were  I  leading  into  battle  the  army  I  had  with 
me  in  Gaul,  I  should  have  thought  it  needless  to  address  you. 
What  use,  indeed,  could  there  be  in  words  of  encouragement 

1  This  discussion  has  continued  down  to  the  present  day,  with  no  satis- 
factory results.  I  am  rather  inclined  to  agree  with  Dr.  Arnold  in  his 
preference  for  the  Little  St.  Bernard  route. — D.  O. 


B.  c.  218]  SCIPIO  ADDRESSES   HIS  ARMY  269 

to  the  horsemen  who  gloriously  defeated  the  enemy's  cavalry 
at  the  Rhone,  or  to  the  legions  with  which  I  pursued  that  same 
enemy  in  his  flight,  finding  in  his  retreat  and  in  his  refusal  to 
give  battle  the  equivalent  of  victory?  Now,  since  that  army, 
having  been  levied  for  Spain,  is  fighting  there,  as  the  senate 
and  people  of  Rome  willed  that  it  should,  with  my  brother 
Cn.  Scipio  in  command,  and  under  my  auspices,1  and  since  I 
have  volunteered  to  command  in  this  battle,  that  you  may 
have  a  consul  to  lead  you  against  Hannibal  and  the  Cartha- 
ginians, I,  a  new  commander  over  new  soldiers,  am  bound  to 
say  a  few  words.  I  would  have  you  know  both  the  enemy  and 
the  conditions  of  the  war.  You  have  to  fight,  soldiers,  with  the 
men  whom  you  vanquished  by  sea  and  land  in  the  former  war, 
from  whom  for  twenty  years  you  have  exacted  tribute,  from 
whom  you  wrested  as  prizes  of  the  contest  provinces  which 
you  now  hold,  Sicily  and  Sardinia.  In  this  battle,  therefore, 
there  will  be  in  you  and  in  them  the  spirit  which  belongs 
respectively  to  the  victors  and  the  vanquished.  Even  now 
they  are  going  to  fight,  not  because  they  are  confident,  but 
because  they  are  compelled.  For  surely  you  can  not  think 
that  the  very  men  who  declined  battle  with  their  army  in  its 
full  strength,  have  found  more  confidence  now  that  they  have 
lost  two  thirds  of  their  infantry  and  cavalry  in  crossing  the 
Alps.  Well,  but  you  will  say  that  though  they  are  but  few, 
they  have  such  stout  hearts  and  frames,  that  scarcely  any 
strength  can  bear  the  brunt  of  their  resolute  attack.  No ; 
they  are  nothing  but  ghosts  and  shadows  of  men,  half  dead 
with  hunger,  cold,  filth,  and  misery,  bruised  and  maimed  amid 
crags  and  rocks ;  add  to  this  their  limbs  frost-bitten,  their 
fingers  stiffened  by  the  snow,  their  frames  shrivelled  with  the 
frost,  their  arms  shattered  and  broken,  their  horses  lame  and 
feeble.  Such  is  the  cavalry,  such  the  infantry  with  which  you 
are  going  to  fight.  It  is  not  an  enemy,  it  is  the  last  remnant 
of  an  enemy  that  you  will  have  before  you ;  and  what  I  fear 
most  is  that  when  you  have  fought,  it  will  be  the  Alps  that  will 
seem  to  have  conquered  Hannibal.  Yet  perhaps  it  was  right 
that  it  should  be  so,  and  that  the  gods,  without  human  aid, 
should  begin  and  all  but  terminate  a  war  waged  against  a 
treaty-breaking  leader  and  people,  while  we,  who  next  to  the 
gods  have  been  grievously  wronged,  merely  finish  off  what 
they  have  both  begun  and  almost  ended. 

"  I  have  no  fear  that  any  of  you  will  think  that  I  am  talk- 

1  As  being  consul.  It  was  on  this  theory  that  in  later  times  triumphs 
were  decreed  to  the  emperors,  though  the  victories  might  have  been  won 
by  their  generals. — D.  O. 


270  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  218 

ing  grandly  to  encourage  you,  while  in  heart  I  feel  far  other- 
wise. I  might  have  gone  with  my  army  to  Spain,  my  allotted 
province,  for  which  I  had  started,  where  I  should  have  a 
brother  to  share  my  counsels  and  be  the  companion  of  my 
dangers,  Hasdrubal  instead  of  Hannibal  for  my  foe,  and  an 
unquestionably  less  formidable  war.  But,  as  I  was  sailing 
along  the  shores  of  Gaul,  on  hearing  the  rumours  about  this 
enemy  I  landed,  sent  on  my  cavalry  and  advanced  my  camp  to 
the  Rhone.  In  an  action  fought  by  my  cavalry,  the  only  por- 
tion of  my  army  with  which  I  had  an  opportunity  of  fighting,  I 
vanquished  the  enemy.  His  infantry,  which  hurried  on  with 
the  rapidity  of  a  flight,  I  could  not  overtake,  and  so  I  returned 
with  all  possible  speed  to  my  ships,  made  this  long  circuit  by 
sea  and  land,  and  now  almost  at  the  foot  of  the  Alps  have  met 
this  dread  foe.  Can  you  think  that  I  have  stumbled  on  him 
unexpectedly,  when  seeking  to  shun  a  conflict,  rather  than  that 
I  am  confronting  him  on  his  very  track,  challenging  and  forc- 
ing him  to  fight  ?  It  is  a  joy  to  me  to  try  whether  in  the  last 
twenty  years  the  earth  has  suddenly  produced  another  race  of 
Carthaginians,  or  whether  they  are  the  same  as  they  were 
when  they  fought  at  the  ^Egates  Islands,  whom  you  then  let 
go  from  Eryx  at  a  valuation  of  eighteen  denarii  for  each  man. 
And  this  Hannibal,  is  he,  as  he  boasts,  a  rival  of  Hercules  in 
his  expeditions,  or  the  man  whom  his  father  left  to  pay  tax 
and  tribute  and  be  the  slave  of  the  Roman  people?  Were  it 
not  that  his  crime  at  Saguntum  is  driving  him  on,  he  would 
surely  look  back,  if  not  on  his  conquered  country,  at  least  on 
his  home  and  his  father,  and  on  those  treaties  in  the  very  hand- 
writing of  that  Hamilcar  who,  at  our  consul's  bidding,  with- 
drew his  garrison  from  Eryx,  accepted  with  murmurs  and 
lamentation  the  hard  terms  imposed  on  Carthage,  and  con- 
sented to  give  up  Sicily  and  pay  tribute  to  Rome.  So  I  would 
have  you  fight,  soldiers,  not  merely  with  the  feelings  you  have 
toward  any  other  foe,  but  with  a  peculiar  wrath  and  fury,  as  if 
you  saw  your  own  slaves  suddenly  bearing  arms  against  you. 
You  might  have  destroyed  them  by  that  worst  of  all  human 
punishments,  starvation,  when  they  were  shut  in  at  Eryx ;  you 
might  have  crossed  with  your  victorious  fleet  into  Africa,  and 
within  a  few  days  have  effaced  Carthage  without  a  struggle. 
But  we  gave  quarter  when  they  begged  it ;  we  released  them 
from  blockade;  we  made  peace  with  the  conquered;  finally, 
we  took  them  under  our  protection  in  their  sore  distress  dur- 
ing the  African  war.  By  way  of  return  for  these  boons,  they 
come  following  the  lead  of  a  young  madman,  to  attack  our 
country.  And  would  that  this  battle  were  only  for  your  hon- 


B.  C.  218]         HANNIBAL'S   SPEECH   TO   HIS   MEN  271 

our,  and  not  for  your  safety !  Not  for  the  possession  of  Sicily 
and  Sardinia,  which  were  formerly  in  dispute,  but  for  Italy 
you  have  now  to  fight.  There  is  no  other  army  behind  you 
to  bar  the  enemy's  way  if  we  do  not  conquer;  there  are  no 
more  Alps,  during  the  passage  of  which  new  forces  can  be 
raised. .  Here,  soldiers,  you  must  make  a  stand  as  if  we  were 
fighting  before  the  walls  of  Rome.  Let  every  man  of  you 
assure  himself  that  he  is  defending  with  his  arms,  not  himself, 
but  his  wife  and  his  little  children;  and  let  him  not  confine 
himself  to  thoughts  of  his  family;  let  him  reflect  again  and 
again  that  the  senate  and  commons  of  Rome  are  now  anx- 
iously watching  our  prowess,  and  that  such  as  shall  be  our 
strength  and  resolution,  such  too  in  the  future  will  be  the  for- 
tune of  that  great  city  and  of  the  empire  of  Rome." 

So  spake  the  consul  to  the  Romans.  Hannibal,  thinking 
that  his  men  might  be  best  stirred  by  deeds  first  and  words 
afterward,  formed  his  army  in  a  circle  and  exhibited  to  them  a 
spectacle.  Some  prisoners  taken  from  the  mountaineers  were 
placed  bound  in  the  midst.  Gallic  weapons  were  flung  down 
at  their  feet,  and  an  interpreter  was  ordered  to  ask  whether 
any  of  them  would  like  to  fight,  if  he  were  to  be  released  from 
his  bonds  and  were  to  receive,  as  the  prize  of  victory,  arms 
and  a  charger.  All  to  a  man  cried  out  for  arms  and  a  com- 
bat, and  when  the  lot  had  been  thrown  for  that  purpose, 
every  man  was  eager  to  be  the  person  whom  fortune  should 
select  for  the  deed.  Each  man  too,  as  his  lot  fell  out,  with 
brisk  alacrity  and  joyful  exultation,  amid  congratulating  com- 
rades, hurriedly  seized  his  weapons  and  danced  after  his  coun- 
try's fashion.  When  they  came  to  fight,  the  prevailing  temper, 
not  only  of  their  fellows  in  the  same  plight  as  themselves,  but 
also  of  the  crowd  of  spectators  was  such  that  the  fortune  of 
the  man  who  nobly  fell  was  as  much  applauded  as  that  of  the 
conqueror. 

Hannibal  having  thus  impressed  his  men  by  the  spectacle 
of  several  pairs  of  combatants  and  then  dismissed  them,  after- 
ward summoned  them  together  and  spoke  as  follows : 

"  If,  soldiers,  you  mean  to  exhibit  in  estimating  your  own 
lot  that  same  temper  which  you  have  just  shown  in  witnessing 
the  exhibition  of  the  fortunes  of  others,  we  have  already  con- 
quered. What  you  saw  yonder,  was  not  a  mere  spectacle;  it 
was,  so  to  say,  a  picture  of  your  present  position.  I  almost 
think  that  fortune  has  imposed  heavier  bonds  and  heavier 
necessities  on  you  than  on  your  prisoners.  On  your  right  and 
on  your  left  two  seas  shut  you  in,  and  you  have  not  so  much  as 
a  single  vessel  for  your  escape.  Round  you  is  the  river  Po,  a 


272  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  218 

broader  and  more  rapid  stream  than  the  Rhone ;  behind  hang 
over  you  the  Alps,  which  in  the  full  freshness  of  your  strength 
you  could  scarcely  cross.  Here,  soldiers,  you  must  conquer  or 
die,  as  soon  as  you  have  met  the  enemy;  and  that  same  for- 
tune, which  has  imposed  on  you  the  necessity  of  fighting, 
holds  out  to  you,  if  victorious,  the  grandest  rewards  which 
men  can  hope  for  even  from  the  immortal  gods.  Were  Sicily 
and  Sardinia,  which  were  wrested  from  our  forefathers,  all  we 
were  about  to  recover  by  our  valour,  even  this  would  be  an 
ample  recompense.  All  that  the  Romans  have  won,  all  the 
accumulated  fruits  of  their  many  triumphs,  all  this  and  its 
possessors  will  be  yours.  For  so  magnificent  a  reward  haste 
to  arm  yourselves,  the  gods  being  your  good  helpers.  Hith- 
erto while  you  hunted  cattle  amid  those  wild  mountains  of 
Lusitania  and  Celtiberia,  you  have  seen  no  recompense  for 
your  hardships  and  dangers ;  now  it  is  time  for  you  to  enter 
on  rich  and  lucrative  campaigns,  and  to  earn  great  wages  for 
your  service.  Your  vast  marches  over  these  many  moun- 
tains, over  these  rivers,  through  these  warlike  tribes,  you  have 
already  accomplished ;  here  Fortune  has  given  you  an  end  of 
your  labours ;  here,  when  you  have  finished  your  campaign- 
ing, she  will  give  you  a  worthy  reward. 

"  And  do  not  think  that,  because  the  war  has  a  great  name, 
victory  will  be  correspondingly  difficult.  Often  has  a  de- 
spised foe  fought  a  bloody  battle,  and  famous  nations  and 
kings  been  vanquished  with  a  very  slight  effort.  If  you  take 
away  the  mere  glitter  of  Rome's  name,  what  ground  is  there 
for  comparing  the  Romans  with  yourselves  ?  Not  to  speak  of 
your  twenty  years'  service,  marked  by  a  valour  and  a  suc- 
cess known  to  all,  you  have  marched  hither  victorious  from 
the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  from  the  ocean  and  the  remotest  limits 
of  the  earth,  through  a  host  of  the  fiercest  peoples  of  Spain 
and  Gaul.  You  will  fight  with  raw  levies,  which  this  very 
summer  have  been  beaten,  vanquished,  and  hemmed  in  by  the 
Gauls ;  an  army  of  which  their  commander  knows  nothing, 
and  which  knows  nothing  of  him.  Am  I,  born  as  I  almost 
was,  certainly  bred  in  my  father's  tent,  and  he  the  most  famous 
of  generals,  I,  the  conqueror  of  Spain  and  Gaul,  victorious 
over  the  Alpine  tribes,  and,  what  is  even  more,  over  the  Alps 
themselves,  to  compare  myself  with  this  six  months'  officer, 
this  deserter  from  his  own  army?  Why,  I  am  sure  that  if  he 
were  to  be  shown  the  Carthaginians  and  Romans  without 
their  standards,  he  would  not  know  which  army  he  com- 
manded. It  is,  I  consider,  no  light  matter,  soldiers,  that  there 
is  not  a  man  among  you  before  whose  eyes  I  have  not  myself 


B.  C.  218]         HANNIBAL'S   SPEECH   TO   HIS   MEN  273 

achieved  some  soldierly  deed,  not  a  man  whose  valour  I  have 
not  personally  witnessed,  and  whose  honourable  distinctions 
I  can  not  call  to  mind  with  their  proper  dates  and  scenes.  As 
your  foster-son  rather  than  as  your  commander,  with  those 
whom  I  have  praised  and  rewarded  a  thousand  times,  I  shall 
go  into  battle  against  men  unknowing  and  unknown  to  each 
other. 

"  Wherever  I  turn  my  eyes,  I  see  around  me  nothing  but 
courage  and  solid  strength,  veteran  infantry,  cavalry  regular 
and  irregular  from  the  noblest  tribes,  you  the  most  loyal  and 
bravest  of  allies,  you,  men  of  Carthage,  resolving  to  fight  for 
your  country,  and  in  a  most  righteous  quarrel.  'Tis  we  who 
attack,  who  with  hostile  standards  are  marching  down  on  Italy, 
certain  to  fight  more  bravely  and  fearlessly  than  the  foe,  inas- 
much as  he  who  attacks  has  higher  hope  and  greater  spirit 
than  he  who  defends.  Our  hearts  too  are  burning  with  the 
excitement  of  wrath,  of  wrong  remembered  and  indignities 
endured.  They  demanded  for  execution  first  myself,  your 
general,  then  all  of  you  that  were  at  the  siege  of  Saguntum; 
had  we  been  surrendered,  they  meant  to  inflict  on  us  the  ex- 
tremest  tortures.  The  most  merciless,  the  most  arrogant  of 
nations  would  have  everything  its  own  and  at  its  own  disposal, 
and  thinks  it  right  to  prescribe  to  us  with  whom  we  may  have 
war,  with  whom  peace.  It  confines  and  incloses  us  within 
boundaries  of  mountains  and  rivers,  which  we  are  not  to  pass, 
but  it  does  not  itself  observe  those  boundaries  which  it  fixes. 
'  You  are  not  to  cross  the  Ebro ;  you  are  not  to  meddle  with 
Saguntum.'  Well,  but  Saguntum  is  not  on  the  Ebro.1  '  You 
are  not  to  move  a  foot's  breadth  anywhere.'  Is  it  a  trifle  that 
you  are  robbing  me  of  my  oldest  provinces,  Sicily  and  Sar- 
dinia? Will  you  also  cross  over  into  Spain,  and  if  I  with- 
draw thence,  into  Africa?  Will  you  cross  over,  do  I  say? 
They  have  crossed  over.  Of  the  two  consuls  of  this  year  they 
have  sent  one  to  Africa,  the  other  to  Spain.  Nothing  is  left 
us  but  what  we  shall  make  good  by  our  arms.  They  can 
afford  to  be  cowards  and  dastards,  they  who  have  something 
to  fall  back  on,  whom  their  own  country,  their  own  territory 
will  receive,  as  they  flee  through  its  safe  and  peaceful  roads. 
For  you  it  is  a  necessity  to  be  brave ;  and  now  that  you  have 
resolved  in  your  despair  to  cast  away  all  but  the  alternatives  of 
victory  or  death,  you  must  either  conquer,  or,  if  fortune  be 

1  This  is  the  very  suitable  place  where  Livy  pricks  the  one  apparent 
inconsistency  in  the  treaty  made  with  Hasdrubal.  Altogether  these 
speeches  may  be  regarded  as  models  of  imaginative  historical  writing. 
~D.  O. 

18 


274  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  218 

doubtful,  meet  your  fate  in  battle  rather  than  in  flight.  If 
this  is  the  fixed  resolve  of  every  heart,  I  say  again,  your  have 
conquered.  Contempt  of  death  is  the  mightiest  weapon  given 
by  the  gods  to  man  for  the  winning  of  victory." 

Such  were  the  stirring  words  by  which  the  soldiers'  hearts 
on  both  sides  were  kindled  for  the  battle.  The  Romans  threw 
a  bridge  over  the  Ticinus,  building  a  fort  also  on  it  for  its  de- 
fence. While  the  enemy  was  busy  with  this  work,  the  Car- 
thaginian despatched  Maharbal  with  a  squadron  of  five  hun- 
dred Numidian  cavalry  to  ravage  the  lands  of  the  allies  of 
Rome,  with  orders  to  spare  the  Gauls  as  much  as  possible  and 
to  incite  the  minds  of  their  chiefs  to  revolt.  As  soon  as  the 
bridge  was  completed,  the  Roman  army  was  marched  across 
it  into  the  territory  of  the  Insubres,  and  encamped  five  miles 
from  Ictumuli.  Here  Hannibal  had  his  camp.  He  promptly 
recalled  Maharbal  and  the  cavalry,  when  he  saw  that  a  battle 
was  imminent,  and  as  he  thought  that  he  could  not  say  enough 
by  way  of  encouragement  to  inspirit  his  men,  he  summoned 
them  to  an  assembly  and  offered  definite  rewards,  in  the  hope 
of  which  they  were  to  fight.  He  would  give  them  land  in 
Italy,  Africa,  Spain,  wherever  each  man  liked,  free  of  all  bur- 
dens to  its  possessor  and  his  children ;  the  man  who  preferred 
money  to  land  he  would  furnish  amply  with  coin ;  those  of  the 
allies  who  wished  to  become  Carthaginian  citizens  should  have 
the  opportunity;  as  for  those  who  chose  to  return  to  their 
homes,  he  would  take  care  that  they  would  never  wish  to  ex- 
change their  lot  for  that  of  any  of  their  fellow-countrymen. 
To  slaves  also  who  accompanied  their  masters  he  pffered  free- 
dom, and  to  the  masters  were  to  be  given  two  slaves  in  place 
of  each.  That  they  might  be  assured  of  the  fulfilment  of  these 
promises,  he  held  in  his  left  hand  a  lamb  and  a  flint  knife  in 
his  right,  and  invoked  Jupiter  and  the  other  gods  to  slay  him 
as  he  slew  the  lamb  should  he  break  faith.  After  this  impre- 
cation, he  crushed  the  animal's  head  with  the  stone.  Then, 
as  if  every  man  felt  that  the  gods  authorized  his  hopes,  to  de- 
lay the  fight  seemed  to  be  to  delay  the  attainment  of  their 
desires,  and  they  all  with  one  heart  and  voice  clamoured  for 
battle. 

Among  the  Romans  there  was  no  such  eagerness.  Be- 
sides other  fears,  some  recent  portents  had  dismayed  them.  A 
wolf  had  entered  their  camp,  and  after  mangling  all  he  met  had 
escaped  uninjured.  A  swarm  of  bees  too  had  settled  on  a  tree 
overhanging  the  general's  tent.  Scipio  went  through  the  due 
propitiations,  and  then  with  his  cavalry  and  light-armed  spear- 
men set  out  to  reconnoitre  the  enemy's  camp  and  learn  from  a 


B.  C.  218]          FIRST  BATTLE   WITH   HANNIBAL  275 

near  view  the  composition  of  his  army.  He  met  Hannibal, 
also  riding  forward  with  some  troopers  to  ascertain  the  na- 
ture of  the  neighbouring  ground.  Neither  at  first  saw  the 
other.  Soon  the  dust  rising  more  and  more  densely  with 
the  movements  of  such  a  host  of  men  and  horses  indicated 
an  enemy's  approach.  Both  armies  halted  and  prepared  for 
battle. 

Scipio  posted  his  light-armed  spearmen  and  his  Gallic  cav- 
alry in  his  first  line,  his  Roman  soldiers  with  the  flower  of  the 
allies  in  his  reserves.  Hannibal  ranged  his  regular  cavalry  in 
his  centre;  his  wings  he  strengthened  with  his  Numidians. 
Scarce  had  the  battle-shout  been  raised,  when  the  spearmen 
fled  to  the  second  line  among  the  reserves.  For  some  time 
after  this  the  fight  between  the  cavalry  was  doubtful ;  but  after 
a  while  as  the  foot-soldiers  mingling  with  their  ranks  fright- 
ened the  horses,  and  many  of  the  riders  were  thrown  or  else  dis- 
mounted on  seeing  their  fellow-soldiers  hard  pressed  and  in 
danger,  the  battle  came  to  be  fought  to  a  great  degree  on  foot. 
Then  the  Numidians  on  the  wings,  making  a  slight  wheel, 
showed  themselves  on  the  rear.  This  alarming  sight  quite 
confounded  the  Romans,  and  their  terror  was  increased  by  the 
wounding  of  their  general,  who  was  rescued  from  his  danger 
by  the  prompt  arrival  of  his  son,  then  in  his  early  youth.  This 
was  the  young  man  to  whom  belongs  the  glory  of  the  ending 
of  this  war,  and  who  was  named  Africanus  for  his  splendid  vic- 
tory over  Hannibal  and  the  Carthaginians.  Still  there  was  a 
disorderly  flight,  especially  among  the  spearmen,  who  were  the 
first  whom  the  Numidians  had  charged.  Some  of  the  cavalry 
closed  up,  received  the  consul  into  their  centre,  and  defending 
him  with  their  persons  as  well  as  with  their  weapons  brought 
him  back  to  the  camp  in  a  retreat  free  from  hurry  and  confu- 
sion. The  glory  of  having  saved  the  consul  is  ascribed  by 
Caelius  to  a  slave  of  Ligurian  origin ;  but  I  prefer  myself  to 
accept  as  true  the  story  about  the  son,  which  has  the  prepon- 
derance of  authority  and  has  been  uniformly  asserted  by  tra- 
dition. 

Such  was  the  first  battle  with  Hannibal.  It  clearly  showed 
the  Carthaginian's  superiority  in  cavalry,  and  that,  conse- 
quently, open  plains,  such  as  those  between  the  Po  and  the 
Alps,  were  not  a  suitable  battle-field  for  the  Romans.  Ac- 
cordingly, on  the  following  night,  orders  were  given  to  the  sol- 
diers to  collect  their  baggage,  the  camp  was  moved  from  the 
Ticinus,  and  a  forced  march  made  to  the  Po,  in  the  hope  of 
finding  the  rafts  with  which  the  river  had  been  bridged  still 
unbroken,  and  so  of  crossing  without  confusion  and  pursuit 


LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  218 

from  the  enemy.  They  reached  Placentia  before  Hannibal 
knew  for  certain  that  they  had  left  the  Ticinus ;  as  it  was,  how- 
ever, he  captured  about  six  hundred  who  were  lingering  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Po,  lazily  loosing  the  raft.  He  could  not 
cross  the  bridge,  as  the  entire  raft  drifted  down  the  stream,  as 
soon  as  its  extremities  were  unfastened.  According  to  Cselius, 
Mago  at  once  swam  across  the  river  with  the  cavalry  and 
Spanish  infantry,  while  Hannibal  himself  took  his  men  across 
by  the  upper  fords  of  the  Po,  first  posting  his  elephants  in  line 
so  as  to  check  the  force  of  the  current.  This  will  hardly  find 
belief  with  those  who  know  the  river ;  for  it  is  not  likely  that 
cavalry  could  with  safety  to  their  arms  and  horses  have 
stemmed  so  rapid  a  stream,  even  supposing  that  all  the  Span- 
iards had  already  crossed  it  on  inflated  bladders;  besides,  a 
circuit  of  several  days  would  have  been  required  to  discover 
fords  on  the  Po  by  which  an  army  encumbered  with  baggage 
could  cross.  I  put  more  confidence  in  those  historians  who 
relate  that  with  difficulty,  in  two  days'  search,  a  place  was 
found  for  bridging  the  river  with  a  raft,  by  which  Mago  and 
the  light-armed  Spaniards  were  sent  on  in  advance.  While 
Hannibal,  who  tarried  a  while  near  the  river  to  receive  em- 
bassies from  the  Gauls,  was  crossing  with  his  heavy  infantry, 
Mago  and  his  horsemen  in  one  day's  march  after  the  passage 
came  up  with  the  enemy  at  Placentia.  A  few  days  afterward 
Hannibal  fortified  his  camp  at  a  distance  of  six  miles  from 
Placentia ;  the  next  day  he  drew  up  his  army  in  sight  of  the 
enemy,  and  offered  battle. 

The  following  night  some  auxiliary  Gauls  perpetrated  an 
outrage  in  the  Roman  camp;  there  was  more  disturbance, 
however,  than  damage.  As  many  as  two  thousand  infantry 
and  two  hundred  cavalry,  cutting  down  the  sentries  at  the 
camp-gates,  deserted  to  Hannibal.  The  Carthaginian  re- 
ceived them  kindly,  animated  them  with  the  hope  of  great  re- 
wards, and  dismissed  every  man  to  his  native  state  that  he 
might  work  on  the  minds  of  his  fellow-countrymen.  Scipio 
looked  on  the  outrage  as  a  sign  of  the  impending  revolt  of  all 
the  Gauls,  who,  affected  by  the  contagion  of  the  crime,  would 
fly  to  arms  in  a  sudden  access  of  madness.  Though  still  suf- 
fering from  his  wound,  he  yet  set  off  with  his  army  in  silence  at 
the  fourth  watch  of  the  following  night,  and  moved  his  camp 
to  the  river  Trebia,  where  was  some  rather  high  ground  and 
hills  ill  adapted  for  cavalry.  He  was  less  successful  in  escap- 
ing observation  than  he  had  been  at  the  Ticinus.  Hannibal 
first  despatched  his  Numidians,  then  all  his  cavalry,  and  would 
at  least  have  thrown  into  disorder  Scipio's  rear,  had  not  the 


B.  C.  218]  EVENTS   IN   SICILY  277 

Numidians  in  their  greed  for  spoil  turned  off  into  the  Roman 
camp.  Ransacking  every  corner  in  the  camp  and  wasting 
time  without  any  adequate  compensation  for  such  delay,  they 
let  the  enemy  slip  from  their  grasp.  After  taking  a  view  of 
the  Romans,  who  had  now  crossed  the  Trebia  and  were  meas- 
uring out  their  camp,  they  cut  down  a  few  loiterers  whom  they 
had  surprised  on  their  own  side  of  the  stream. 

Scipio,  no  longer  able  to  bear  up  against  the  pain  of  his 
wound,  which  the  march  had  irritated,  and  thinking  that  he 
ought  to  wait  for  his  colleague,  who  had,  he  understood,  been 
already  recalled  from  Sicily,  selected  and  fortified  a  position 
near  the  river,  which  seemed  safest  for  a  permanent  camp. 
Hannibal  also  encamped  at  no  great  distance ;  though  he  was 
elated  by  his  successful  cavalry  engagement,  he  was  equally 
perplexed  by  the  daily  increasing  scarcity  which  encountered 
him  in  his  advance  through  the  enemy's  country,  in  which  no 
supplies  had  been  anywhere  prepared.  He  sent  therefore  to 
the  town  of  Clastidium,1  where  the  Romans  had  accumulated 
vast  stores  of  corn.  His  troops  were  on  the  point  of  attack, 
when  hope  was  held  out  that  the  place  would  be  betrayed  to 
him.  At  no  great  cost,  merely  that  of  four  hundred  gold 
coins,  Dasius  Brundisinus,  the  officer  of  the  garrison,  was 
bribed,  and  Clastidium  delivered  up  to  Hannibal.  The  place 
served  as  a  magazine  to  the  Carthaginians  while  in  camp 
on  the  Trebia.  There  was  no  cruel  treatment  of  the  prisoners 
from  the  surrendered  garrison,  as  Hannibal  sought  at  the  out- 
set to  get  a  name  for  clemency. 

Though  the  war  by  land  was  at  a  standstill  at  the  Trebia, 
some  operations  had  been  carried  on  by  the  consul  Sempro- 
nius,  and  also  before  his  arrival,  both  by  land  and  sea,  around 
Sicily  and  the  closely  adjacent  islands.  Twenty  five-banked 
ships  had  been  sent  by  the  Carthaginians  with  a  thousand  sol- 
diers to  ravage  the  coasts  of  Italy.  Of  these  nine  reached  the 
Liparae  islands  and  eight  the  Isle  of  Vulcan,2  while  three  were 
driven  into  the  straits  by  a  heavy  sea.  They  were  seen  from 
Messana,  and  Hiero,  King  of  Syracuse,  who  happened  at  that 
time  to  be  at  Messana  waiting  the  arrival  of  the  Roman  con- 
sul, despatched  twelve  ships  against  them ;  these  captured 
them  without  resistance  and  brought  them  into  that  port. 
From  the  prisoners  it  was  ascertained,  that  besides  the  fleet  of 
twenty  ships,  to  which  they  themselves  belonged,  thirty-five 
other  five-banked  ships  were  making  for  Sicily  with  the  view 
of  rousing  old  allies ;  that  the  chief  object  was  the  seizure  of 
Lilybaeum;  that  it  was  their  belief  that  these  ships  also  had 
1  Now  Castiggio. — D.  O.  *  One  of  the  Liparae. — D.  O. 


278  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  218 

been  driven  on  the  ^Egates  Islands  in  the  same  storm  by  which 
they  were  themselves  scattered.  King  Hiero  communicated 
all  this  by  letter,  just  as  he  had  heard  it,  to  Marcus  yEmilius, 
the  praetor,  whose  province  Sicily  was,  and  advised  him  to 
hold  Lilybaeum  with  a  strong  garrison.  Instantly  the  praetor 
sent  off  to  the  various  states  envoys  and  military  officers, 
who  were  to  urge  their  allies  to  vigilance  in  self-defence. 
Above  all,  Lilybaeum  was  busy  with  warlike  preparations, 
orders  having  been  publicly  issued  that  the  seamen  were  to 
bring  to  the  ships  cooked  food  for  ten  days.  There  would 
thus  be  nothing  left  to  delay  embarkation  as  soon  as  the  signal 
was  given.  Along  the  whole  coast,  too,  men  were  despatched 
to  observe  the  enemy's  approach  from  watch-towers. 

Accordingly,  though  the  Carthaginians  had  purposely  de- 
layed the  advance  of  their  fleet,  so  as  to  approach  Lilybaeum 
before  daylight,  yet  they  were  perceived,  as  the  moon  shone 
all  night,  and  they  came  with  their  sails  set.  In  a  moment 
the  signal  was  given  from  the  watch-towers,  and  in  the 
town  there  was  a  call  to  arms,  and  the  fleet  was  manned. 
Some  of  the  soldiers  were  on  the  walls  and  on  guard  at  the 
gates,  some  on  board  the  ships.  The  Carthaginians,  seeing 
that  they  would  have  to  deal  with  an  enemy  who  was  by  no 
means  unprepared,  kept  outside  the  harbour  till  daybreak, 
passing  the  time  lowering  the  sails  and  getting  their  vessels 
ready  for  action.  At  dawn  of  day  they  retired  with  their  fleet 
into  the  open  sea,  that  there  might  be  room  for  a  battle,  and 
that  the  enemy's  ships  might  have  free  passage  out  of  the 
harbour.  Nor  did  the  Romans  decline  an  engagement,  en- 
couraged as  they  were  by  the  memories  of  past  achievements 
on  those  same  seas,  and  by  the  multitude  and  valour  of  their 
soldiers. 

As  soon  as  they  had  reached  the  open  water  the  Romans 
were  eager  to  close  and  to  try  their  strength  at  near  quarters. 
The  Carthaginians,  on  the  contrary,  avoided  the  enemy,  pre- 
ferring manoeuvres  to  direct  attack,  and  wishing  to  make  it  a 
contest  of  ships  more  than  of  men  and  arms ;  for  their  fleet, 
though  amply  manned  with  mariners,  was  poor  in  soldiers,  and 
whenever  a  ship  was  grappled  by  the  foe,  the  troops  which 
fought  from  it  were  in  numbers  decidedly  inferior.  This  hav- 
ing been  observed,  the  confidence  of  the  Romans  rose  at  the 
sight  of  their  numerous  soldiery,  while  that  of  the  enemy  was 
depressed  by  their  deficiency.  Seven  Carthaginian  vessels 
were  at  once  surrounded ;  the  remainder  took  to  flight.  In 
the  captured  ships  were  seventeen  hundred  soldiers  and  sail- 
ors, and  among  them  three  Carthaginian  nobles.  The  Roman 


B.C.  218]        ROMAN   SUCCESSES  IN  THE   SOUTH  279 

fleet  returned  without  loss  into  harbour,  only  one  vessel  hav- 
ing been  pierced,  but  even  this  was  brought  back  safely. 

Immediately  after  this  battle,  before  those  at  Messana 
knew  anything  of  it,  Sempronius  the  consul  arrived  at  the 
town.  As  he  entered  the  straits,  King  Hiero  met  him  with  a 
fleet  fully  manned  and  equipped;  went  from  his  own  to  the 
admiral's  ship,  and  after  congratulating  the  consul  on  his  safe 
arrival  with  his  army  and  his  fleet,  and  praying  that  his  pas- 
sage to  Sicily  might  have  a  prosperous  and  successful  issue, 
explained  to  him  the  state  of  the  island  and  the  aims  of  the 
Carthaginians.  He  promised,  too,  that  now  in  his  old  age  he 
would  help  the  Roman  people  with  as  willing  a  heart  as  he  had 
done  in  his  youth  in  the  former  war.  Corn  and  clothing  for 
the  consul's  legions  and  for  the  seamen  he  would  provide 
free  of  cost,  and  he  added  that  there  was  the  greatest  danger 
hanging  over  Lilybaeqm  and  the  cities  on  the  coast,  and  that 
some  would  welcome  a  revolution.  Hearing  this  the  consul 
thought  that  he  ought  without  a  moment's  delay  to  proceed 
with  his  fleet  to  Lilybaeum.  The  king  and  the  royal  fleet 
started  with  him.  During  the  voyage  from  Messana  they 
heard  of  the  battle  off  Lilybaeum,  and  of  the  rout  and  capture 
of  the  enemy's  ships. 

From  Lilybaeum  the  consul,  dismissing  Hiero  and  the 
royal  fleet  and  leaving  the  praetor  to  guard  the  coasts  of  Sicily, 
crossed  over  himself  to  the  island  of  Melita,1  then  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  Carthaginians.  On  his  approach,  Hamilcar, 
son  of  Gisgo,  the  commander  of  the  garrison,  surrendered 
himself,  with  nearly  two  thousand  troops,  the  town,  and  the 
island.  A  few  days  afterward  the  consul  returned  from  Mes- 
sana to  Lilybaeum,  and  the  prisoners  taken  both  by  him  and 
the  consul  were  sold  by  auction,  such  as  were  distinguished 
by  noble  birth  being  excepted.  When  he  thought  that  Sicily 
was  safe  enough  on  this  side,  he  crossed  to  the  islands  of 
Vulcan,  as  report  said  that  the  Carthaginian  fleet  was  moored 
there.  Not  a  man,  however,  of  the  enemy  was  found  near  the 
islands,  for  it  so  happened  that  they  had  sailed  away  to  ravage 
the  shores  of  Italy,  where  they  had  wasted  the  territory  round 
Vibo  2  and  were  also  threatening  that  city.  As  the  consul  was 
returning  to  Sicily,  this  raid  of  the  enemy  into  the  territory 
of  Vibo  was  reported  to  him,  and  there  was  also  handed  to  him 
a  despatch  from  the  senate  telling  of  Hannibal's  passage  into 
Italy,  and  bidding  him  on  the  very  first  opportunity  render 
aid  to  his  colleague. 

Harassed  by  a  combination  of  many  anxieties,  he  at  once 

1  Malta. — D.  O.  *  Now  Monteleone. — D.  O. 


2go  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  218 

put  his  troops  on  shipboard  and  sent  them  up  the  Adriatic 
to  Ariminum,  while  to  his  lieutenant  Sextus  Pompeius  he  as- 
signed the  defence  of  the  country  round  Vibo  and  of  the 
shores  of  Italy  with  five-and-twenty  war-ships.  He  made  up 
the  fleet  of  Marcus  ^milius,  the  praetor,  to  fifty  vessels.  As 
soon  as  he  had  settled  the  affairs  of  Sicily,  he  went  in  person, 
cruising  along  the  Italian  coast,  with  ten  ships  to  Ariminum.1 
Thence  he  set  out  with  his  army  for  the  river  Trebia  and 
joined  his  colleague. 

Both  consuls  and  all  the  available  strength  of  Rome  were 
now  opposed  to  Hannibal,  a  plain  proof  that  either  the  Roman 
Empire  could  be  defended  by  these  forces  or  that  no  other 
troops  remained.  Still,  one  of  the  consuls,  disheartened  by  a 
single  cavalry  action  and  the  wound  he  had  received,  wished 
to  defer  battle.  The  other,  whose  courage  was  unbroken  and 
spirits  high,  would  not  brook  delay. 

The  country  between  the  Trebia  and  the  Po  was  then  in- 
habited by  the  Gauls,  who  during  this  struggle  between  two 
overwhelmingly  powerful  nations  showed  no  decided  bias, 
and  had  an  eye  undoubtedly  to  the  favour  of  the  conqueror. 
Provided  only  they  remained  quiet,  the  Romans  were  well 
satisfied,  but  the  Carthaginians  were  greatly  mortified,  re- 
peatedly declaring  that  they  had  come  at  the  invitation  of  the 
Gauls  to  set  them  free.  Resentment,  and  the  wish  to  support 
their  soldiers  on  the  plunder,  suggested  the  sending  of  five 
thousand  infantry  and  a  thousand  horse,  Numidians  for  the 
most  part,  with  some  Gauls  interspersed  among  them,  to  lay 
waste  the  whole  country,  district  after  district  as  far  as  the 
banks  of  the  Po.  Irr  their  sore  need  of  help  the  Gauls,  though 
hitherto  they  had  maintained  an  undecided  attitude,  were 
driven  to  turn  from  the  authors  of  this  wrong  to  those  who 
would,  they  hoped,  avenge  it.  They  sent  envoys  to  the  con- 
sul, imploring  Roman  aid  for  a  country  suffering  grievously 
from  the  too  faithful  loyalty  of  its  inhabitants.  Neither  the 
ground  nor  the  occasion  for  interference  approved  itself  to 
Cornelius,  and  he  suspected  the  nation  for  its  many  acts  of 
faithlessness,  but  above  all,  if  other  memories  had  faded  in  a 
forgotten '  past,  for  the  recent  treachery  of  the  Boii.  Sem- 
pronius,  on  the  contrary,  held  that  the  defence  of  the  first  who 
needed  succour  was  the  surest  bond  for  the  preservation  of 
the  loyalty  of  the  allies.  While  his  colleague  hesitated,  he  sent ' 
his  own  cavalry  with  a  thousand  infantry  attached  to  it,  almost 
all  light-armed,  to  protect  the  territory  of  the  Gauls  beyond 
the  Trebia.  Suddenly  attacking  the  dispersed  and  disorderly 
1  Rimini.— D.  O. 


B.  c.  2 1 8]  RASHNESS  OF  SEMPRONIUS  281 

pillagers,  who  were  also  for  the  most  part  encumbered  with 
booty,  they  caused  an  intense  panic,  slaying  them  and  driv- 
ing them  before  them  to  their  camps  and  outposts.  Driven 
back  by  the  numbers  that  sallied  forth,  they  renewed  the  fight 
when  re-enforced  by  their  own  men.  With  varying  fortune 
of  battle  they  pursued  and  retired,  and  left  the  action  unde- 
cided at  last.  But  the  enemy's  loss  was  the  heavier,  and  the 
honour  of  victory  rested  with  the  Romans. 

No  one,  indeed,  thought  their  success  greater  and  more 
complete  than  the  consul  himself.  He  was  transported  with 
joy  at  having  been  victorious  with  the  very  arm,  the  cavalry, 
with  which  the  other  consul  had  been  beaten.  The  spirits 
of  the  soldiers,  he  was  sure,  were  restored  and  revived,  and  no 
one  but  his  colleague  wished  to  defer  the  action,  and  he,  ailing 
as  he  was,  more  in  mind  than  body,  shrank  from  battle  and 
the  steel,  as  he  thought  of  his  wound.  But  they  must  not  let 
themselves  sink  into  a  sick  man's  languor.  What  good  was 
there  in  further  delay  and  waste  of  time?  Where  is  the  third 
consul  and  the  third  army  we  are  waiting  for?  The  Cartha- 
ginian camp  is  in  Italy,  almost  within  sight  of  Rome.  It  is 
not  Sicily  or  Sardinia,  already  lost  to  the  conquered,  it  is  not 
Spain  this  side  of  the  Ebro  which  is  threatened;  it  is  from 
their  native  soil,  from  the  land  in  which  they  were  born,  that 
the  Romans  are  to  be  driven.  "  What  a  sigh,"  he  exclaimed, 
"  would  our  fathers  heave,  they  who  were  wont  to  fight  round 
the  walls  of  Carthage,  were  they  to  see  us,  their  offspring,  two 
consuls  and  two  consular  armies  cowering  within  their  camp 
in  the  heart  of  Italy,  while  the  Carthaginian  has  brought  under 
his  sway  all  the  country  between  the  Alps  and  the  Apen- 
nines? "  Such  was  the  language,  vehement  almost  as  a  popu- 
lar harangue,  which  he  would  pour  forth  as  he  sat  by  his  ailing 
comrade,  or  in  the  headquarters.  He  was  goaded  on  too  by 
the  near  approach  of  the  elections,  and  by  the  fear  that  the 
war,  with  its  opportunity  of  securing  all  the  glory  for  himself, 
while  his  colleague  was  disabled,  would  be  postponed  till  new 
consuls  came  into  office.  Accordingly,  he  bade  the  soldiers 
prepare  for  the  coming  battle,  while  Cornelius  in  vain  dis- 
sented. 

Hannibal,  seeing  clearly  what  was  best  for  his  foe,  had 
hardly  a  hope  that  the  consuls  would  act  at  all  rashly  or  im- 
prudently. But  now  being  well  aware  that  the  temper  of  one 
of  them,  as  he  knew  at  first  by  report,  and  subsequently  by 
experience,  was  impetuous  and  headstrong,  and  surmising 
that  it  was  the  more  so  after  the  successful  skirmish  with  his 
pillaging  parties,  he  felt  sure  that  the  happy  opportunity  for 


282  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  218 

action  was  at  hand.  Anxiously  and  intently  did  he  watch  that 
he  might  not  let  the  moment  slip,  while  the  enemy's  soldiery 
were  raw  recruits,  while  the  better  of  the  generals  was  disabled 
by  his  wound,  and  while  the  courage  of  the  Gauls  was  in  its 
freshness.  Their  numerous  host,  he  knew,  would  follow  him 
with  less  alacrity  the  further  they  were  dragged  from  their 
homes.  For  these,  and  like  reasons,  he  hoped  the  battle  was  at 
hand,  and  he  was  eager  to  force  it,  if  there  was  any  hesitation. 
When  the  Gauls  who  acted  as  his  spies  (as  Gauls  were  serving 
in  both  camps,  these  could  be  most- safely  employed  to  give 
the  knowledge  he  desired)  had  brought  back  word  that  the 
Romans  were  ready  for  battle,  he  proceeded  to  look  out  a 
position  for  an  ambuscade. 

Between  the  armies  was  a  stream  closed  in  by  very  high 
banks,  and  by  an  overgrowth  on  either  side  of  marshy  grass, 
and  of  the  underwood  and  bramble  bushes  that  usually  spread 
themselves  over  uncultivated  ground.  Hannibal  himself  rode 
round  the  place  and  saw  with  his  own  eyes  that  it  afforded 
ample  cover  for  the  concealment  even  of  cavalry.  "  This," 
said  he  to  his  brother  Mago,  "  will  be  the  spot  for  you  to 
occupy.  Pick  out  a  hundred  men  from  our  entire  infantry, 
and  as  many  from  the  cavalry,  and  come  with  them  to  me  in 
the  first  watch  of  the  night;  now  it  is  time  to  refresh  your- 
selves." So  saying,  he  dismissed  his  staff.  Mago  soon  ar- 
rived with  his  picked  men.  "  I  see  before  me,"  said  Hannibal, 
"  a  band  of  heroes ;  but  that  you  may  be  strong  in  numbers 
as  well  as  in  courage,  choose  each  of  you  nine  men  like  him- 
self from  the  squadrons  and  the  companies.  Mago  will  show 
you  the  place  where  you  are  to  lie  hid;  you  have  an  enemy 
blind  to  these  stratagems  of  war."  Having  then  dismissed 
Mago  with  his  thousand  horse  and  thousand  foot,  Hannibal 
at  dawn  ordered  his  Numidian  cavalry  to  cross  the  Trebia 
and  ride  up  to  the  gates  of  the  enemy's  camp.  There  by  dis- 
charging missiles  at  the  sentries  they  were  to  lure  the  enemy 
to  an  engagement,  and  then,  the  battle  once  begun,  grad- 
ually to  draw  him  after  them  to  their  side  of  the  river.  Such 
were  his  orders  to  the  Numidians.  The  other  infantry  and 
cavalry  officers  were  directed  to  see  that  all  the  men  had  a 
meal,  and  then  to  await  the  signal,  armed,  and  with  horses 
saddled. 

Eager  for  battle,  for  his  purpose  was  already  fixed,  Sem- 
pronius,  on  the  first  alarm  caused  by  the  Numidians,  led  out 
the  whole  of  his  cavalry,  the  arm  in  which  he  had  peculiar 
confidence,  then  six  thousand  infantry,  and  at  last  his  entire 
army.  It  happened  to  be  winter,  and  a  snowy  day;  the  region, 


B.  C.  218]  BATTLE   OF  THE   TREBIA  283 

too,  lies  between  the  Alps  and  the  Apennines,  and  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  rivers  and  marshes  renders  it  intensely  cold. 
And  then  as  the  men  and  the  horses  had  to  be  hurriedly 
marched  out  without  a  previous  meal,  and  with  no  protection 
against  the  cold,  there  was  no  warmth  in  them,  and  as  they 
approached  the  river,  more  and  more  piercingly  did  the  frosty 
air  blow  in  their  faces.  As  soon  as  they  plunged  into  the 
water  in  pursuit  of  the  retreating  Numidians  (and  it  was  breast- 
high  from  having  been  swollen  by  rain  in  the  night)  their 
limbs  grew  stiffer  and  stiffer,  so  that  when  they  stepped  out 
of  it,  they  had  hardly  strength  to  grasp  their  weapons,  and 
grew  faint  from  fatigue  and  from  hunger  also  as  the  day 
wore  on. 

Hannibal's  soldiers  meanwhile  had  had  fires  lit  before  their 
tents;  oil  was  distributed  among  the  companies  with  which 
to  make  their  limbs  supple,  and  they  had  enjoyed  a  leisurely 
meal.  As  soon  as  the  news  came  that  the  enemy  had  crossed 
the  river,  they  armed  themselves  and  marched  out  to  battle 
in  full  vigour  of  heart  and  frame.  His  Balearic  slingers,  to 
the  number  of  about  eight  thousand,  all  light-armed,  Hanni- 
bal posted  in  front  of  the  standards,  next  his  heavy-armed 
infantry — the  strength  and  stay  of  his  army.  His  flanks  he 
covered  with  ten  thousand  cavalry,  and  placed  his  elephants  in 
two  divisions  on  either  flank. 

The  consul,  seeing  that  his  cavalry  were  pursuing  in  loose 
order  and  were  confronted  unexpectedly  by  a  sudden  resist- 
ance from  the  Numidians,  gave  the  signal  for  retreat,  recalled 
his  men,  and  received  them  within  his  infantry.  Of  Romans 
there  were  eighteen  thousand;  of  the  Latin  allies,  twenty 
thousand,  and  some  auxiliaries  of  the  Cenomani,  the  only 
Gallic  tribe  which  had  stood  firm  to  its  loyalty.  Such  were 
the  forces  which  met  in  action.  The  slingers  began  the  battle, 
but  as  they  were  encountered  by  the  superior  strength  of  the 
infantry,  these  light  troops  were  suddenly  withdrawn  to  the 
wings,  the  result  being  that  the  Roman  cavalry  was  at  once 
hard  pressed.  Even  before,  four  thousand  troopers  could  by 
themselves  barely  hold  their  ground  against  ten  thousand, 
most  of  whom  were  fresh  while  they  were  fatigued,  and  now 
they  were  overwhelmed,  so  to  say,  by  a  cloud  of  missiles  from 
the  Baliares.  Then,  too,  the  elephants,  towering  conspicu- 
ously as  they  did  on  the  flanks,  and  scaring  the  horses  by  their 
appearance  and  above  all  by  their  strange  smell,  caused  wide- 
spread panic.  The  contending  infantry  were  well  matched 
as  to  courage  but  not  as  to  physical  strength,  which  indeed 
the  Carthaginians,  who  had  just  refreshed  themselves,  had 


284  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  218 

brought  in  full  vigour  into  the  battle.  The  Romans,  on  the 
other  hand,  had  hungry,  weary  frames,  stiff  and  benumbed 
with  cold.  Still,  their  courage  would  have  held  out  had  they 
had  to  fight  only  with  infantry.  But  the  Baliares,  after  driv- 
ing back  the  cavalry,  kept  up  a  discharge  of  missiles  on  the 
Roman  flanks,  and  the  elephants  had  now  thrown  themselves 
into  the  midst  of  the  infantry,  while  Mago  and  his  Numidians, 
the  moment  the  army  had  unawares  passed  their  ambush, 
started  up  in  the  rear,  spreading  terrible  confusion  and  panic. 
Yet  with  all  these  horrors  around  them,  the  ranks  stood  firm 
some  time,  even  against  the  elephants,  contrary  to  all  expecta- 
tion. Some  light-armed  troops,  posted  for  the  purpose,  drove 
them  off  with  showers  of  darts  and  then  pursued  them. 

In  their  confusion  they  were  beginning  to  rush  wildly  at 
their  own  men,  when  Hannibal  ordered  them  to  be  driven 
from  the  centre  to  the  extreme  left  against  the  Gallic  auxili- 
aries. Among  these  they  created  at  once  a  very  decided  panic, 
and  fresh  fear  fell  on  the  Romans  as  soon  as  they  saw  their 
auxiliaries  routed.  They  now  stood  fighting  in  a  circular  for- 
mation, when  nearly  ten  thousand  men,  who  could  find  no  other 
way  of  escape,  broke  through  the  centre  of  the  African  troops, 
where  this  had  been  strengthened  by  some  Gallic  auxiliaries, 
making  great  slaughter  among  the  enemy.  Cut  off  by  the 
river  from  return  into  their  camp,  and  not  being  able  to  see  for 
the  rain  where  they  could  help  their  comrades,  they  marched 
straight  to  Placentia.  Then  followed  rush  after  rush  in  all  di- 
rections; some  made  for  the  river  and  were  swept  away  in  its 
eddies,  or  were  cut  down  by  the  enemy  as  they  hesitated  to 
plunge  into  the  stream.  Such  as  were  dispersed  in  flight  over 
the  country  followed  the  track  of  the  main  body  in  its  retreat, 
and  made  for  Placentia.  Others  there  were  to  whom  dread 
of  the  enemy  gave  courage  to  plunge  into  the  river,  which 
they  crossed,  and  arrived  at  the  camp.  A  storm  of  mingled 
rain  and  snow  with  an  unendurable  intensity  of  cold  destroyed 
many  of  the  men  and  of  the  beasts  of  burden,  and  almost  all 
the  elephants. 

The  Trebia  was  the  final  limit  of  the  Carthaginian  pursuit. 
They  returned  to  their  camp  so  benumbed  with  cold  that  they 
hardly  felt  the  joy  of  victory.  Consequently  on  the  next  night, 
when  the  camp  garrison  and  the  other  survivors,  mainly 
wounded  men,  crossed  the  Trebia  on  rafts,  the  enemy  either 
perceived  nothing,  or,  not  being  able  to  move  from  fatigue  and 
wounds,  they  pretended  to  perceive  nothing.  Thus,  unmo- 
lested by  the  Carthaginians,  the  consul  Scipio  marched  his 
army  in  perfect  quiet  to  Placentia,  whence  he  crossed  the  Po 


B.  C.  218]  IN   WINTER   QUARTERS  285 

to  Cremona,  that  a  single  colony  might  be  spared  the  burden 
of  two  armies  in  winter  quarters. 

At  Rome  such  a  panic  followed  on  this  disaster  that  peo- 
ple imagined  that  the  enemy  would  at  once  appear  before 
the  city  in  battle  array,  and  that  there  was  no  hope,  or  any 
means  of  repelling  his  attack  from  their  walls  and  gates — 
one  consul  having  been  beaten  at  the  Ticinus,  the  other  hav- 
ing been  recalled  from  Sicily;  and  now,  with  two  consuls  and 
two  consular  armies  defeated,  what  other  generals  or  legions 
had  they  to  summon  to  the  rescue?  In  the  midst  of  their 
alarm  the  consul  Sempronius  arrived.  At  great  risk  he  had 
made  his  way  through  the  enemy's  cavalry,  who  were  scour- 
ing the  country  for  plunder,  relying  on  audacity  rather  than 
on  skill  or  any  hope  of  eluding  them  or  chance,  should  he 
fail  to  elude,  of  successful  resistance.  The  one  thing  which 
at  the  moment  was  felt  to  be  most  important,  he  did;  he 
held  the  elections  for  consuls,  and  then  went  back  to  his 
winter  camp.  Cneius  Servilius  and  Caius  Flaminius  were  ap- 
pointed consuls. 

Meanwhile  there  was  no  peace  or  rest  for  the  Romans, 
even  in  their  winter  camp.  Everywhere  the  Numidian  cavalry 
scoured  the  country,  or  where  the  ground  was  too  difficult 
for  them,  the  Celtiberi  and  Lusitani.1  Consequently,  all  sup- 
plies were  cut  off,  except  such  as  were  brought  up  the  Po  by 
vessels.  Near  Placentia  stood  Emporium;  the  place  had  been 
fortified  with  great  labour,  and  was  held  by  a  strong  garrison. 
In  the  hope  of  storming  the  fortress,  Hannibal  set  out  with 
some  cavalry  and  light-armed  troops.  It  was  in  the  conceal- 
ment of  his  design  that  he  mainly  rested  his  confidence  of 
success,  but  though  he  attacked  by  night,  he  was  not  unper- 
ceived  by  the  sentries.  A  shout  was  instantly  raised,  so  loud 
as  to  be  heard  at  Placentia.  At  daybreak  the  consul  was  on 
the  spot  with  his  cavalry,  his  legions  having  had  orders  to 
follow  in  fighting  order.  Meantime  a  cavalry  action  was 
fought,  in  which  a  panic  seized  the  enemy,  because  Hannibal 
left  the  field  wounded,  and  so  the  position  was  brilliantly  de- 
fended. 

Thence,  after  a  few  days'  rest,  before  his  wound  was  thor- 
oughly cured,  Hannibal  marched  on  Victumviae  to  attack  the 
place.  It  had  been  fortified  by  the  Romans  as  a  magazine 
depot  during  the  Gallic  war,  and  a  mixed  multitude  had 
flocked  to  it  from  all  the  neighbouring  tribes.  Many  more  had 
now  been  driven  into  it  out  of  the  rural  districts  by  fear  of 
the  enemy's  ravages.  It  was  a  gathering  thus  composed  that, 

1  Spanish  tribes. — D.  O. 


286  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  218 

with  hearts  kindled  by  the  report  of  the  brave  defence  of  the 
fort  near  Placentia,  flew  to  arms,  and  went  forth  to  meet  Han- 
nibal. More  like  a  crowd  than  an  army,  they  encountered 
him  on  his  march;  and  as  on  one  side  there  was  nothing  but 
a  disorderly  throng,  while  on  the  other  was  a  general  who 
trusted  his  soldiers  and  soldiers  who  trusted  their  general, 
upward  of  thirty-five  thousand  were  routed  by  a  handful  of 
men.  Next  day  there  was  a  surrender,  and  a  garrison  was  ad- 
mitted within  the  walls.  The  moment  they  obeyed  the  order  to 
give  up  their  arms,  the  conquerors  received  a  signal  to  plunder 
the  town,  as  if  they  had  stormed  it,  and  not  a  dreadful  deed, 
which  under  such  circumstances  historians  usually  think 
worthy  of  note,  was  left  unperpetrated.  Every  kind  of  outrage 
that  lust,  cruelty,  and  brutal  insolence  could  suggest  was  prac- 
tised on  the  miserable  inhabitants.  Such  were  Hannibal's 
winter  expeditions. 

For  a  brief  space,  while  the  cold  was  intolerable,  the  sol- 
diers were  allowed  rest.  At  the  first  dubious  signs  of  spring 
Hannibal  quitted  his  winter  quarters,  and  led  them  into  Etru- 
ria  with  the  design  of  attaching  that  people  to  himself,  by 
force  or  by  persuasion,  as  he  had  attached  the  Gauls  and 
Ligurians.  While  he  was  crossing  the  Apennines,  he  was 
assailed  by  a  tempest  so  fierce  that  it  almost  exceeded  the 
horrors  of  the  Alps.  A  storm  of  wind  and  rain  was  driving 
straight  into  the  men's  faces.  At  first  they  halted,  as  they 
had  either  to  drop  their  weapons,  or,  if  they  still  struggled 
on  against  it,  were  caught  by  the  whirlwind  and  dashed  to 
the  earth.  Then  finding  that  it  actually  stopped  their  breath 
and  prevented  respiration,  they  sat  down  for  a  few  moments 
with  their  backs  to  the  wind.  And  now  the  whole  heaven 
resounded  with  awful  rumblings,  and  amid  terrific  peals 
flashed  out  the  lightnings.  Blinded  and  deafened,  all  stood 
dumb  with  fear,  till  at  last,  as  the  rain  was  exhausted  and  the 
fury  of  the  gale  became  in  consequence  the  more  intense,  it 
seemed  a  necessity  to  encamp  on  the  spot  where  they  were 
thus  overtaken.  This  indeed  was,  as  it  were,  to  begin  their 
toils  anew,  for  they  could  unfurl  nothing  and  fix  nothing,  or 
what  they  had  fixed  did  not  keep  its  place,  everything  being 
rent  and  swept  away  by  the  wind.  Soon  the  moisture  which 
the  air  held  aloft,  froze  in  the  cold  of  the  mountain  heights, 
and  discharged  such  a  shower  of  snow  and  hail,  that  the  men, 
ceasing  all  effort,  threw  themselves  to  the  earth,  buried  under 
their  coverings  rather  than  protected  by  them.  Then  fol- 
lowed a  frost  so  intense  that  any  one  who  in  this  miserable 
wreck  of  men  and  beasts  sought  to  raise  and  lift  himself  was 


B.  c.  2 1 8]  FIGHT  AT   HANNIBAL'S   CAMP  287 

long  unable  to  do  so;  his  sinews  were  paralyzed  with  cold 
so  that  he  could  hardly  bend  his  limbs.  After  a  while  they 
began  at  last  to  stir  themselves  into  movement  and  to  recover 
their  spirits ;  here  and  there  a  few  fires  were  lit,  and  the  utterly 
helpless  sought  relief  from  their  comrades.  Two  days  they 
lingered  on  the  spot,  like  a  besieged  garrison.  Many  beasts 
of  burden,  and  seven  of  the  elephants  which  had  survived  the 
battle  on  the  Trebia,  perished. 

Descending  from  the  Apennines,1  Hannibal  moved  his 
camp  back  toward  Placentia,  halting  after  an  advance  of  about 
ten  miles.  Next  day  he  marched  against  the  enemy  with 
twelve  thousand  infantry  and  five  thousand  cavalry,  and  Sem- 
pronius,  who  by  this  time  had  returned  from  Rome,  did  not 
refuse  battle.  That  day  the  two  camps  were  separated  by  an 
interval  of  three  miles;  on  the  morrow  the  armies  fought  with 
the  greatest  courage,  the  result  being  doubtful.  At  the  first 
onset  the  arms  of  Rome  were  so  superior  as  not  only  to  pre- 
vail in  the  field,  but  even  to  drive  the  routed  enemy  to  his 
camp,  which  itself  they  attacked.  Hannibal,  after  posting  a 
few  defenders  on  the  ramparts  and  at  the  camp  gates,  retired 
the  rest  of  his  troops  in  close  order  into  the  centre  of  his 
camp,  bidding  them  attentively  await  the  signal  for  a  sortie. 
It  was  now  about  the  ninth  hour  of  the  day,  and  the  Roman 
general,  whose  men  had  wearied  themselves  in  vain,  seeing 
that  there  was  no  hope  of  taking  the  camp,  gave  the  signal 
for  retreat.  When  Hannibal  knew  this,  and  saw  that  the  at- 
tack had  slackened  and  that  retreat  had  begun,  he  hurled 
his  cavalry  right  and  left  against  the  enemy,  and  sallied  in 
person  from  the  centre  of  his  camp  with  the  whole  strength 
of  his  infantry.  Seldom  had  there  been  a  fiercer  fight,  and 
the  destruction  of  one  army  would  have  rendered  it  more 
memorable  had  the  light  allowed  it  to  have  been  considerably 
prolonged.  Night,  however,  abruptly  terminated  an  action 
begun  with  prodigious  ardour.  The  slaughter  was  conse- 
quently less  terrible  than  the  fighting,  and  as  the  success  was 
almost  evenly  balanced,  the  two  sides  quitted  the  field  with 
equal  loss.  No  more  than  six  hundred  infantry  and  half  as 
many  cavalry  fell  on  either  side,  but  the  Roman  loss  was  out 
of  proportion  to  their  numbers,  for  several  men  of  equestrian 
rank,  five  military  tribunes,  and  three  commanding  officers 
of  the  allies  were  slain. 

Immediately  after  the  battle  Hannibal  retired  to  Liguria, 
Sempronius  to  Luca.  As  Hannibal  was  on  his  way  to  Liguria, 
two  Roman  quaestors,  Caius  Fulvius  and  Lucius  Lucretius, 

1  On  the  same  side. — D.  O. 


288  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  218 

who  had  been  treacherously  intercepted,  along  with  two  mili- 
tary tribunes  and  five  men  of  equestrian  rank,  nearly  all  sons 
of  senators,  were  surrendered  to  him,  that  he  might  have  a 
better  assurance  of  a  secure  peace  and  alliance  with  the  Li- 
gurians. 

During  these  events  in  Italy,  Cneius  Cornelius  Scipio  had 
been  despatched  with  a  fleet  and  an  army  to  Spain.  Starting 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Rhone,  he  sailed  round  the  Pyrenees 
and  brought  his  ships  to  anchor  at  Emporiae ;  *  there  he  dis- 
embarked his  army,  and  beginning  with  the  Lacetani,  while 
he  renewed  old  as  well  as  formed  new  alliances,  he  brought 
under  Roman  dominion  the  entire  coast  as  far  as  the  river 
Ebro.  The  character  for  clemency  thus  acquired  spread  not 
only  among  the  maritime  population,  but  even  to  the  wilder 
tribes  in  the  interior  and  among  the  mountains.  With  these 
he  secured  not  simply  peace,  but  also  an  armed  alliance,  and 
some  strong  auxiliary  cohorts  were  levied  from  among  them. 
Hanno's  province  was  on  this  side  the  Ebro.  He  had  been 
left  by  Hannibal  to  defend  this  district.  Feeling  that  he  must 
meet  the  danger  before  the  whole  country  was  lost,  he  en- 
camped within  sight  of  the  enemy  and  led  out  his  men  for 
battle.  The  Roman,  too,  thought  that  there  ought  to  be  no 
delay  about  fighting,  for  he  knew  that  he  would  have  to  en- 
counter Hanno.and  Hasdrubal,  and  he  preferred  to  deal  with 
them  separately  rather  than  united.  Nor  did  the  battle  prove 
a  severe  contest.  Six  thousand  of  the  enemy  were  slain  and 
two  thousand  captured  with  the  camp  garrison;  for  both  the 
camp  was  stormed  and  the  general  himself  made  prisoner  with 
several  of  his  chief  officers.  Cissis,  a  town  near  the  camp, 
was  also  stormed.  The  spoil  of  this  place  indeed  consisted 
of  things  of  small  value,  rude  household  furniture  and  some 
worthless  slaves.  The  camp  really  enriched  the  soldiers.  It 
was  the  camp  not  of  the  defeated  army  alone,  but  also  of  that 
which  was  now  serving  with  Hannibal  in  Italy,  almost  every- 
thing of  value  having  been  left  on  the  Spanish  side  of  the 
Pyrenees,  that  his  troops  on  their  march  might  have  no  bur- 
densome baggage. 

Before  any  certain  tidings  of  this  defeat  had  reached  him, 
Hasdrubal  had  crossed  the  Ebro  with  eight  thousand  infantry 
and  a  thousand  cavalry,  meaning,  it  seemed,  to  oppose  the 
Romans  immediately  on  their  arrival.  But  when  he  heard 
of  the  ruinous  disaster  at  Cissis  and  the  loss  of  the  camp,  he 
directed  his  march  toward  the  sea.  In  the  neighbourhood  of 

1  At  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  Rosas,  the  Mediterranean  end  of  the  Pyre- 
nees.—D.  O. 


B.  C.  218]  VARYING  SUCCESSES  IN  SPAIN  289 

Tarraco  *  our  marines  and  seamen  were  roaming  all  over  the 
country,  success  as  usual  producing  carelessness.  Sending 
out  his  cavalry  far  and  wide,  Hasdrubal  drove  them  to  their 
ships  with  great  slaughter  and  yet  greater  panic.  But  not 
daring  to  linger  in  the  neighbourhood,  lest  Scipio  should 
swoop  down  on  him,  he  retired  to  the  farther  side  of  the  Ebro. 
Scipio  too,  who,  on  the  rumour  of  a  new  enemy,  had  advanced 
by  forced  marches,  returned  with  his  fleet  to  Emporiae,  after 
executing  a  few  of  the  captains  of  the  ships  and  leaving  a  mod- 
erate garrison  at  Tarraco.  Almost  instantly  on  his  departure 
Hasdrubal  appeared,  stirred  to  revolt  the  Ilergetes,  who  had 
given  hostages  to  Scipio,  and,  taking  with  him  the  youth  of 
that  tribe,  ravaged  the  lands  of  the  allies  who  remained  loyal 
to  Rome.  This  roused  Scipio  from  his  winter  quarters,  and 
Hasdrubal  again  withdrew  from  the  whole  country  on  this 
side  of  the  Ebro.  Scipio  marched  his  army  to  the  tribe  of  the 
Ilergetes,  now  abandoned  by  the  instigator  of  their  revolt. 
Having  driven  them  all  into  Atanagrum,  their  principal  town, 
he  besieged  the  place,  and  within  a  few  days  received  them 
under  the  protection  and  jurisdiction  of  Rome,  after  fining 
them  in  money  and  exacting  more  hostages  than  before. 

He  next  entered  the  territory  of  the  Ausetani,  near  the 
Ebro,  themselves  also  allies  of  the  Carthaginians.  He  be- 
sieged their  capital,  and  when  the  Lacetani  were  marching 
by  night  to  help  their  neighbours,  he  intercepted  them  by  an 
ambuscade  near  the  town  which  they  were  about  to  enter. 
Upward  of  twelve  thousand  were  slain;  nearly  all  the  sur- 
vivors stripped  themselves  of  their  arms  and  fled  to  their 
homes,  after  wandering  hither  and  thither  through  the  coun- 
try. As  for  the  besieged,  their  sole  defence  was  the  bad  weath- 
er, which  much  embarrassed  their  assailants.  The  siege 
lasted  thirty  days,  during  which  the  snow  lay  on  the  ground 
to  a  depth  of  seldom  less  than  four  feet,  and  it  had  so  com- 
pletely buried  the  Roman  siege-works  and  mantlets  that  of 
itself  alone  it  was  a  protection  against  the  fiery  missiles  dis- 
charged from  time  to  time  by  the  enemy.  At  last  their  chief, 
Amusicus,  having  made  his  escape  to  Hasdrubal,  they  sur- 
rendered, agreeing  to  make  a  payment  of  twenty  silver  talents. 
The  army  returned  into  its  winter  quarters  at  Tarraco. 

At  Rome,  or  in  the  neighbourhood,  many  portents  oc- 
curred that  winter,  or,  as  often  happens,  when  once  men's 
minds  are  affected  by  religious  fears,  many  were  reported  and 
thoughtlessly  believed.  These,  among  others,  were  related: 
A  child,  six  months  old,  of  free-born  parents,  had  shouted 

1  Tarragona. 
'9 


290  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  |_B.  C.  218 

"  Triumph ! " ;  in  the  cattle-market  an  ox  mounted  of  its  own 
accord  to  a  third  story,  from  which  it  threw  itself,  in  alarm 
at  the  commotion  of  the  inhabitants;  phantom  ships  had  been 
seen  glittering  in  the  sky;  the  Temple  of  Hope  in  the  vege- 
table market  had  been  struck  by  lightning;  at  Lanuvium  a 
spear  had  moved  of  itself;  a  crow  had  flown  down  on  the 
Temple  of  Juno,  and  perched  on  the  very  shrine  of  the  god- 
dess; at  several  places  in  the  country  round  Amiternum  had 
been  seen  figures  like  men  in  white  clothing,  whom,  however, 
nobody  actually  met;  in  Picenum  there  had  been  a  shower  of 
stones;  at  Caere  the  sacred  tablets  had  shrunk;  and  in  Gaul 
a  wolf  had  carried  off  a  sentry's  sword,  first  pulling  it  out  of 
its  sheath.  As  to  the  other  portents,  the  College  of  the  Ten  * 
were  bidden  to  consult  the  sacred  books,  but  for  the  shower 
of  stones  at  Picenum  a  holy  feast  of  nine  days  was  proclaimed, 
and  then,  for  the  expiation  of  others,  almost  all  the  citizens 
busied  themselves  with  sacrifices.  First  of  all,  the  city  was 
purified,  and  victims  of  the  larger  sort  were  offered  to  such 
deities  as  the  sacred  books  directed.  An  offering  of  forty 
pounds'  weight  of  gold  was  conveyed  to  Lanuvium  for  Juno, 
and  a  bronze  statue  was  also  dedicated  by  the  married  women 
to  Juno  of  the  Aventine.  At  Caere,  where  the  sacred  tablets 
had  shrunk,  orders  were  given  for  a  festival  of  the  gods,  and 
on  Mount  Algidus  there  were  to  be  public  prayers  to  Fortune. 
At  Rome,  too,  there  was  a  sacred  feast  for  the  youth  and  a  sup- 
plication at  the  Temple  of  Hercules,  which  was  specially  named, 
and  the  same  for  all  the  citizens  at  all  the  prescribed  shrines. 
To  the  Guardian  Spirit  of  the  city  were  sacrificed  five  victims 
of  the  larger  sort,  and  the  praetor,  Caius  Atilius  Soranus,  was 
directed  to  vow  certain  offerings,  should  the  state  continue  in 
its  present  positon  for  ten  years.  These  ceremonies  and  vows, 
performed  in  obedience  to  the  Sibylline  books,  greatly  re- 
lieved men's  minds  of  their  religious  fears. 

One  of  the  consuls-elect,  Flaminius,  to  whom  the  lot  had 
given  command  of  the  legions  in  winter  quarters  at  Placentia, 
sent  orders  by  a  despatch  to  the  consul  there  that  these  troops 
were  to  be  in  camp  at  Ariminum  on  the  I5th  of  March.  It 
was  his  intention  to  enter  on  his  consulship  in  his  province,  for 
he  well  remembered  his  old  quarrels  with  the  senate,  first 
when  he  was  tribune,  then  when  he  was  consul  and  they 
sought  to  deprive  him  of  his  consulship,  lastly  when  his  tri- 
umph was  refused.  He  was  hated,  too,  by  the  senators,  in 
consequence  of  an  unprecedented  bill  which  Quintus  Claudius, 

1  The  Decemviri  Sacrorum,  who  had  charge  of  the  Sibylline  books. 
In  early  times  there  were  but  two  keepers  ;  later,  again,  the  number  was 
increased  to  fifteen. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  218]  EVENTS   AT   ROME  29! 

as  tribune,  had  introduced  in  defiance  of  the  senate  by  the  sup- 
port of  Flaminius  alone  among  its  members.  The  bill  for- 
bade any  senator  or  senator's  son  to  possess  a  sea-going 
vessel  of  more  than  three  hundred  amphoras'  burden.  This 
was  thought  sufficient  for  the  conveyance  of  produce  from 
their  estates,  all  trade  profit  being  regarded  as  discreditable 
for  a  senator.  The  matter  was  discussed  in  a  very  sharp  de- 
bate, and  had  earned  for  him,  as  the  supporter  of  the  bill, 
much  dislike  from  the  nobility,  while  it  gave  him  popularity 
with  the  commons  and  thereby  a  second  consulship.  Think- 
ing, therefore,  that  they  would  detain  him  at  Rome  by  falsi- 
fying the  auspices,  by  delays  arising  out  of  the  Latin  festival, 
and  other  hindrances  that  lay  in  a  consul's  way,  he  left  on  a 
pretended  journey,  and  went  away  secretly  as  a  private  citizen 
to  his  province. 

As  soon  as  this  was  made  public,  it  stirred  fresh  wrath  among 
the  already  angry  senators.  "  Flaminius,"  they  said,  "  is  now 
making  war  not  only  on  the  senate,  but  even  on  the  immortal 
gods.  When  he  was  previously  elected  consul  without  due 
auspices,  and  we  recalled  him  from  the  field  of  battle,  he  was 
disobedient  both  to  God  and  man.  Now,  conscious  of  having 
despised  them,  he  has  fled  away  from  the  Capitol  and  the  sa- 
cred recital  of  the  usual  vows.  He  is  unwilling  on  his  day  of 
taking  office  to  approach  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Optimus  Max- 
imus,  to  see  and  consult  the  senate  which  hates  him,  and  which 
he  himself  alone  of  their  members  hates,  to  proclaim  the  Latin 
festival  and  offer  on  the  mount  the  customary  sacrifices  to 
Jupiter  Latialis,  to  go  with  due  auspices  to  the  Capitol  to 
recite  the  vows,  and  thence  to  his  province  in  his  general's 
cloak  with  lictors  about  him.  He  has  left  Rome  like  a  camp- 
follower,  with  no  official  badge,  without  a  lictor,  secretly, 
stealthily,  just  as  if  he  were  quitting  his  country  to  become  an 
exile.  He  supposes  doubtless  that  it  is  more  consistent  with 
the  dignity  of  the  empire  for  him  to  enter  on  his  office  at 
Ariminum  than  at  Rome,  and  to  assume  his  official  robe  in 
some  wayside  inn  rather  than  before  his  own  hearth." 

All  maintained  that  he  ought  to  be  recalled,  nay,  even 
dragged  back,  and  forced  to  perform  in  person  every  duty 
owing  to  God  and  man  before  he  went  to  the  army  in  his 
province.  It  was  decided  to  despatch  envoys;  but  the  men 
sent  on  this  errand,  Quintus  Terentius  and  Marcus  Antistius, 
had  no  more  effect  on  him  than  had  the  despatches  of  the 
senate  in  his  previous  consulship.  He  entered  on  his  office  in 
the  course  of  a  few  days.  A  calf  which  he  was  offering,  and 
which  was  already  wounded,  broke  loose  from  the  grasp  of  the 


292  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  218 

sacrificing  priests,  sprinkling  several  of  the  bystanders  with  its 
blood.  At  a  distance  from  the  altar,  where  no  one  knew  what 
caused  the  commotion,  there  was  still  greater  panic  and  ex- 
citement. It  was  regarded  by  many  as  an  omen  of  very  fear- 
ful import.  Flaminius  then  received  two  legions  from  Sem- 
pronius,  the  consul  of  the  previous  year,  and  two  more  from 
Caius  Atilius,  the  praetor,  and  began  to  lead  his  army  through 
the  passes  of  the  Apennines  into  Etruria. 


BOOK  XXII 

THE   SECOND  PUNIC  WAR   (CONTINUED) 

IT  was  nearly  spring  when  Hannibal  moved  out  of  his  win- 
ter quarters.  He  had  before  attempted  to  cross  the  Apen- 
nines, but  in  vain,  so  intolerable  was  the  cold;  and  his 

sojourn  had  been  prolonged  amid  extreme  peril  and  appre- 
hension. The  Gauls  had  been  attracted  by  the  hope  of  spoil 
and  rapine;  but  when  they  found  that  instead  of  their  plun- 
dering their  neighbours,  their  own  country  was  made  the 
battle-field,  and  that  it  was  burdened  by  the  winter  quarters 
of  the  two  armies,  they  transferred  their  hatred  from  the 
Romans  to  Hannibal.  Again  and  again  plots  were  hatched 
by  the  chiefs  against  his  life;  again  and  again  he  was  saved 
by  their  treachery  to  each  other,  and  they  revealed  their 
conspiracies  with  the  same  levity  with  which  they  had  con- 
spired. He  would  also  change  now  his  dress,  now  his  wig, 
and  found  protection  in  thus  confusing  his  assailants.  How- 
ever, these  fears  were  another  reason  for  his  early  movement 
out  of  winter  quarters. 

About  the  same  time,  on  the  i$th  of  March,  the  con- 
sul, Cneius  Servilius,  entered  on  his  office  at  Rome.  When  he 
submitted  to  the  senate  his  proposals  for  the  year,  their  angry 
feeling  against  Caius  Flaminius  broke  out  afresh.  "  We  have 
made  two  consuls,"  they  exclaimed,  "  but  we  have  only  one. 
What  legal  authority,  what  religious  sanction  l  does  this  man 
possess?  It  is  from  his  home,  from  the  hearth  of  the  state 
and  of  the  family ;  it  is  after  keeping  the  Latin  Feast,2  and 
sacrificing  on  the  Alban  Hill,  and  praying  with  all  due  so- 
lemnity, that  the  new  magistrate  takes  this  sanction  with  him. 
No  such  sanction  can  attend  a  private  person;  the  man  who 

1  Unless  the  auspices  were  properly  taken  at  Rome  the  administration 
was  not  considered  to  be  placed  under  divine  protection. — D.  O. 

*  Said  to  have  been  instituted  by  the  last  Tarquin  in  honour  of  Jupiter 
Latiaris,  to  commemorate  the  alliance  between  Rome  and  the  Latins.  It 
lasted  six  days,  and  the  consuls  could  not  legally  take  the  field  until  they 
had  celebrated  it. — D.  O. 

293 


294  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  217 

has  started  without  it  can  not  acquire  it  afresh  in  its  fulness  on 
a  foreign  soil." 

These  fears  were  increased  by  the  tidings  of  marvels  which 
now  came  from  many  places  at  once.  Some  soldiers'  spears 
in  Sicily  had  burst  into  a  blaze;  so  too  in  Sardinia  had  the 
staff  which  an  officer  held  in  his  hand  as  he  went  his  rounds 
inspecting  the  sentries  on  the  wall ;  two  shields  had  sweated 
blood;  certain  soldiers  had  been  struck  by  lightning;  there 
had  been  seen  an  eclipse  of  the  sun ;  at  Praeneste  blazing 
stones  had  fallen  from  the  sky ;  at  Arpi  shields  had  been  seen 
in  the  sky,  and  the  sun  had  seemed  to  fight  with  the  moon ; 
at  Capua  two  moons  had  risen  in  the  daytime ;  the  stream  at 
Caere  had  flowed  half  blood ;  gouts  of  blood  had  been  seen  on 
the  water  that  dripped  from  the  spring  of  Hercules ;  reapers 
in  the  fields  near  Antium  had  seen  the  ears  fall  all  bloody  into 
the  basket;  at  Falerii  the  sky  had  seemed  parted  by  a  huge 
cleft,  while  an  overpowering  light  shone  forth  from  the  open- 
ing; certain  oracle  tablets  had  spontaneously  shrunk,  and  on 
one  that  fell  out  were  the  words  "  MARS  SHAKES  HIS  SPEAR  " ; 
at  the  same  time,  at  Rome,  sweat  came  out  on  the  statue  of 
Mars  that  stands  in  the  Appian  Road  by  the  images  of  the 
wolves ; *  at  Capua  the  sky  had  seemed  to  be  on  fire,  and  a 
moon  to  fall  in  the  midst  of  a  shower.  Then  men  began  to 
believe  less  solemn  marvels.  Some  persons  had  had  goats  be- 
come sheep ;  a  hen  had  changed  into  a  cock,  and  a  cock  into 
a  hen.  The  consul  gave  the  whole  story  at  length,  as  it  had 
been  told  him,  at  the  same  time  introducing  into  the  senate 
those  who  vouched  for  it,  and  asked  the  opinion  of  the  house 
on  the  religious  aspect  of  the  matter. 

It  was  resolved  that  such  expiation  should  be  made  as 
these  portents  demanded,  with  victims,  some  of  which  should 
be  full-grown,  some  sucklings ;  that  public  prayer  should  be 
offered  during  three  days  at  every  shrine.  Everything  else 
was  to  be  done,  after  the  College  of  the  Ten  had  inspected  the 
holy-  books,  in  such  fashion  as  they  might  declare  from  the 
prophecies  to  be  pleasing  to  the  gods.  They  ordered  that  the 
first  offering,  of  gold  weighing  fifty  pounds,  should  be  made 
to  Jupiter,  that  to  Juno  and  Minerva  offerings  of  silver  should 
be  presented;  that  full-grown  victims  should  be  sacrificed  to 
Juno  the  Queen  on  the  Aventine  Hill,  and  to  Juno  the  Pre- 
server at  Lanuvium ;  that  the  matrons,  collecting  a  sum  of 
money,  as  much  as  it  might  be  convenient  for  each  to  con- 
tribute, should  carry  it  as  an  offering  to  Juno  the  Queen  on  the 
Aventine;  that  a  religious  feast  should  be  held,  and  that  even 

1  Just  outside  of  what  is  now  the  Porta  San  Sebastiano. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  217]         IN   THE   MARSHES   OF  THE   ARNO  295 

the  very  freedwomen  should  raise  contributions  according  to 
their  means  for  a  gift  to  the  goddess  Feronia.  After  all  this  the 
College  of  the  Ten  sacrificed  full-grown  victims  in  the  market- 
place at  Ardea.  Last  of  all,  as  late  as  December,  a  sacrifice  was 
made  at  the  Temple  of  Saturn  in  Rome ; x  a  religious  feast  was 
ordered  (furnished  by  the  senators)  and  a  public  banquet ;  and 
a  festival  of  Saturn  to  last  a  day  and  a  night  proclaimed 
throughout  Rome.  This  day  the  people  were  enjoined  to 
keep  and  observe  as  a  holiday  forever. 

While  the  consul  was  busy  at  Rome  propitiating  the  gods 
and  holding  a  levy,  Hannibal,  who  had  quitted  his  winter 
quarters,  heard  that  the  consul  Flaminius  had  already  reached 
Arretium.2  Accordingly,  though  another  route,  longer  indeed 
but  more  convenient,  was  open  to  him,  he  took  the  nearer  way 
across  the  marshes  of  the  Arno,  which  happened  at  the  time 
to  be  more  flooded  than  usual.  He  arranged  that  the  Spanish 
and  African  soldiers,  who  were  the  whole  strength  of  his  vet- 
eran army,  should  go  first,  taking  in  their  columns  their  own 
baggage,  that  wherever  they  might  be  compelled  to  halt,  sup- 
plies might  not  fail  them ;  the  Gauls  were  to  follow,  occupying 
the  middle  of  the  line  of  march ;  last  were  to  come  the  cavalry ; 
after  these  Mago  with  some  light  Numidian  troopers  was  to 
close  up  the  line,  and  especially  to  keep  the  Gauls  together,  if, 
weary  of  the  long  and  toilsome  march  (and  this  is  a  thing 
which  they  are  ill  fitted  to  endure),  they  began  to  straggle  or 
halt.  The  first  columns,  wherever  the  guides  led  the  way, 
through  deep  and  almost  bottomless  pools  of  the  river,  nearly 
swallowed  up  in  the  mud  and  plunging  into  the  water,  still  fol- 
lowed the  standards.  The  Gauls  could  not  recover  their  foot- 
ing when  they  slipped,  nor  extricate  themselves  from  the 
pools ;  without  spirit  to  eke  out  their  strength,  without  hope 
to  eke  out  their  spirit,  some  just  dragged  along  their  weary 
limbs,  others  fainted  in  sheer  despair  and  lay  dying  amid 
crowds  of  dying  horses.  Of  all  things  it  was  the  want  of  sleep, 
and  this  they  had  to  endure  for  four  days  and  three  nights, 
that  most  exhausted  them.  The  floods  were  everywhere,  and 
not  a  spot  of  dry  ground  could  be  found  where  they  might 
rest  their  weary  bodies.  They  could  only  pile  up  the  baggage 
in  the  water  and  lie  down  on  the  top ;  or  the  heaps  of  horses 
that  had  perished  all  along  the  line  of  march  just  appeared 
above  the  water  and  supplied  the  necessary  place  where  they 
might  snatch  a  few  moments'  repose.  Hannibal  himself, 
whose  eyes  suffered  from  the  trying  weather  of  the  spring, 
with  its  great  variations  of  heat  and  cold,  rode  on  the  one  ele- 
1  In  the  Forum,  where  its  ruins  now  stand. — D.  O.  *  Arezzo. — D.  O. 


2p6  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.217 

phant  which  was  left,  that  he  might  be  as  high  as  possible 
above  the  water.  But  long  watches,  together  with  the  damps 
of  night  and  the  moist  climate,  affected  his  head;  there  was 
no  place  or  time  for  the  application  of  remedies,  and  he  lost 
one  of  his  eyes. 

At  last  he  struggled  out  of  the  marshes,  after  losing  amid 
horrible  misery  a  multitude  of  men  and  horses,  and  pitched  his 
camp  on  the  first  spot  of  dry  ground  that  he  reached.  Here 
he  learned  from  the  scouts  whom  he  had  sent  forward  that  the 
Roman  army  lay  round  the  walls  of  Arretium.  From  that 
time  he  continued  to  acquaint  himself  by  the  most  diligent  in- 
quiry with  all  particulars,  the  consul's  plans,  his  temper,  the 
geography  of  the  country,  his  movements,  his  facilities  for  pro- 
curing supplies,  everything  in  fact  which  it  might  serve  him  to 
know.  The  district  was  one  of  the  most  fertile  in  Italy,  the 
Etrurian  plain  lying  between  Faesulae  *  and  Arretium,  a  coun- 
try rich  in  corn  and  cattle  and  all  kinds  of  wealth. 

Flaminius,  full  of  the  fierce  memories  of  his  first  consul- 
ship, stood  little  in  awe  not  merely  of  the  laws  and  of  the  dig- 
nity of  the  senators,  but  even  of  the  gods.  The  good  fortune 
which  had  given  him  success  at  home  and  in  the  field,  had 
fostered  this  natural  recklessness.  It  was  plain,  then,  that  one 
who  was  equally  careless  of  God  and  man  would  be  utterly 
rash  and  headstrong.  That  he  might  yield  the  sooner  to  his 
special  failings,  the  Carthaginian  general  laid  his  plans  to  har- 
ass and  provoke  him.  He  marched  on  Faesulae,  leaving  his 
enemy  on  the  left,  made  his  way,  plundering  as  he  went, 
through  the  heart  of  Etruria,  and  making  the  consul  behold 
from  afar  all  the  devastation  which  fire  and  sword  could  pos- 
sibly spread. 

Flaminius,  who  had  the  enemy  sat  still  would  not  have  sat 
still  himself,  now  saw  the  possessions  of  the  allies  pillaged 
almost  under  his  eyes,  and  regarded  it  as  a  personal  disgrace 
that  the  Carthaginian  chief  should  rove  at  his  will  through  the 
very  heart  of  Italy  and  march  unopposed  to  assault  the  very 
walls  of  Rome.  Every  other  voice  in  the  council  of  war  was 
raised  for  a  policy  of  safety  rather  than  of  display.  "  Wait 
for  your  colleague,"  they  said ;  "  when  your  armies  are  united, 
you  may  conduct  your  campaign  on  one  common  purpose  and 
plan;  meanwhile  the  cavalry  and  the  light-armed  auxiliaries 
must  check  the  enemy  in  their  wild  license  of  plunder." 

Full  of  fury,  Flaminius  rushed  out  of  the  council.  He 
ordered  the  trumpets  to  give  the  signal  for  march  and  battle, 
crying :  "  We  are  to  sit,  I  suppose,  before  the  walls  of  Arreti- 
1 A  suburb  of  Fl<?repce,  now  fi$solc.— P,  0, 


B.  c.  217]    FLAMINIUS  ENTRAPPED  BY  HANNIBAL          297 

Um,  because  our  country  and  our  home  are  here.  Hannibal  we 
let  slip  out  of  our  hands,  and  let  him  ravage  Italy  and  plunder 
and  approach  the  very  walls  of  Rome,  but  we  are  not  to  move 
hence  till  the  senate  send  to  Arretium  for  Flaminius,  just  as 
in  old  days  they  sent  to  Veii  for  Camillas !  "  With  these  fierce 
words  on  his  lips  he  ordered  the  standard  to  be  pulled  out  of 
the  ground  with  all  haste,  and  himself  leaped  upon  his  horse, 
when  lo !  in  a  moment  the  horse  fell,  throwing  the  consul  over 
his  head.  Amid  the  terror  of  all  who  stood  near — for  this  was 
an  ill  omen  for  the  beginning  of  a  campaign — came  a  message 
to  say  that  the  standard  could  not  be  wrenched  from  the 
ground,  though  the  standard-bearer  had  exerted  all  his 
strength.  Turning  to  the  messenger,  the  consul  said :  "  Per- 
haps you  bring  me  a  despatch  from  the  senate,  forbidding  me 
to  fight.  Go,  tell  them  to  dig  the  standard  out,  if  their  hands 
are  so  numb  with  fear  that  they  can  not  wrench  it  up."  The 
army  then  began  its  march.  The  superior  officers,  not  to 
speak  of  their  having  dissented  from  the  plan,  were  alarmed 
by  these  two  portents;  the  soldiers  generally  were  delighted 
with  their  headstrong  chief.  Full  of  confidence,  they  thought 
little  on  what  their  confidence  was  founded. 

Hannibal  devastated  with  all  the  horrors  of  war  the  coun- 
try between  Cortona  and  Lake  Trasumennus,  seeking  to  in- 
furiate the  Romans  into  avenging  the  sufferings  of  their  allies. 
They  had  now  reached  a  spot  made  for  an  ambuscade,  where 
the  lake  comes  up  close  under  the  hills  of  Cortona.  Between 
them  is  nothing  but  a  very  narrow  road,  for  which  room  seems 
to  have  been  purposely  left.  Farther  on  is  some  compara- 
tively broad  level  ground.  From  this  rise  the  hills,  and  here 
in  the  open  plain  Hannibal  pitched  a  camp  for  himself  and  his 
African  and  Spanish  troops  only ;  his  slingers  and  other  light- 
armed  troops  he  marched  to  the  rear  of  the  hills ;  his  cavalry 
he  stationed  at  the  mouth  of  the  defile,  behind  some  rising 
ground  which  conveniently  sheltered  them.  When  the  Ro- 
mans had  once  entered  the  pass  and  the  cavalry  had  barred 
the  way,  all  would  be  hemmed  in  by  the  lake  and  the  hills. 

Flaminius  had  reached  the  lake  at  sunset  the  day  before. 
On  the  morrow,  without  reconnoitring  and  while  the  light  was 
still  uncertain,  he  traversed  the  narrow  pass.  As  his  army 
began  to  deploy  into  the  widening  plain,  he  could  see  only  that 
part  of  the  enemy's  force  which  was  in  front  of  him ;  he  knew 
nothing  of  the  ambuscade  in  his  rear  and  above  his  head.  The 
Carthaginian  saw  his  wish  accomplished.  He  had  his  enemy 
shut  in  by  the  lake  and  the  hills  and  surrounded  by  his  own 
troops.  He  gave  the  signal  for  a  general  charge,  and  the  at- 


LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  C.  217 

tacking  columns  flung  themselves  on  the  nearest  points.  To 
the  Romans  the  attack  was  all  the  more  sudden  and  unex- 
pected because  the  mist  from  the  lake  lay  thicker  on  the  plains 
than  on  the  heights,  while  the  hostile  columns  on  the  various 
hills  had  been  quite  visible  to  each  other  and  had  therefore 
advanced  in  concert.  As  for  the  Romans,  with  the  shout  of 
battle  rising  all  round  them,  before  they  could  see  plainly, 
they  found  themselves  surrounded,  and  fighting  begun  in  their 
front  and  their  flanks  before  they  could  form  in  order,  get 
ready  their  arms,  or  draw  their  swords. 

Amid  universal  panic  the  consul  showed  all  the  courage 
that  could  be  expected  in  circumstances  so  alarming.  The 
broken  ranks,  in  which  every  one  was  turning  to  catch  the  dis- 
cordant shouts,  he  re-formed  as  well  as  time  and  place  per- 
mitted, and,  as  far  as  his  presence  or  his  voice  could  reach, 
bade  his  men  stand  their  ground  and  fight.  "  It  is  not  by 
prayers,"  he  cried,  "  or  entreaties  to  the  gods,  but  by  strength 
and  courage  that  you  must  win  your  way  out.  The  sword 
cuts  a  path  through  the  midst  of  the  battle ;  and  where  there 
is  the  less  fear,  there  for  the  most  part  is  the  less  danger." 
But,  such  were  the  uproar  and  confusion,  neither  encourage- 
ments nor  commands  could  be  heard;  so  far  were  the  men 
from  knowing  their  standards,  their  ranks,  or  their  places,  that 
they  had  scarcely  presence  of  mind  to  snatch  up  their  arms 
and  prepare  them  for  the  fight,  and  some  found  them  an  over- 
whelming burden  rather  than  a  protection.  So  dense  too  was 
the  mist  that  the  ear  was  of  more  service  than  the  eye.  The 
groans  of  the  wounded,  the  sound  of  blows  on  body  or  armour, 
the  mingled  shouts  of  triumph  or  panic,  made  them  turn  an 
eager  gaze  this  way  and  that.  Some  would  rush  in  their  flight 
on  a  dense  knot  of  combatants  and  become  entangled  in  the 
mass;  others  returning  to  the  battle  would  be  carried  away 
by  the  crowd  of  fugitives.  But  after  a  while,  when  charges 
had  been  vainly  tried  in  every  direction,  when  it  was  seen  that 
the  hills  and  the  lake  shut  them  in  on  either  side,  and  the  hos- 
tile lines  in  front  and  rear,  when  it  was  manifest  that  the  only 
hope  of  safety  lay  in  their  own  right  hands  and  swords,  then 
every  man  began  to  look  to  himself  for  guidance  and  for  en- 
couragement, and  there  began  afresh  what  was  indeed  a  new 
battle.  No  battle  was  it  with  its  three  ranks  of  combatants,  its 
vanguard  before  the  standards  and  its  second  line  fighting 
behind  them,  with  every  soldier  in  his  own  legion,  cohort, 
or  company:  chance  massed  them  together,  and  each  man's 
impulse  assigned  him  his  post,  whether  in  the  van  or  rear.  So 
fierce  was  their  excitement,  so  intent  were  they  on  the  battle, 


B.  C.  217]         BATTLE   OF   LAKE   TRASUMENNUS  299 

that  not  one  of  the  combatants  felt  the  earthquake  which  laid 
whole  quarters  of  many  Italian  cities  in  ruins,  changed  the 
channels  of  rapid  streams,  drove  the  sea  far  up  into  rivers, 
and  brought  down  enormous  land-slides  from  the  hills. 

For  nearly  three  hours  they  fought,  fiercely  everywhere, 
but  with  especial  rage  and  fury  round  the  consul.  It  was  to 
him  that  the  flower  of  the  army  attached  themselves.  He, 
wherever  he  found  his  troops  hard  pressed  or  distressed,  was 
indefatigable  in  giving  help  ;  conspicuous  in  his  splendid  arms, 
the  enemy  assailed  and  his  fellow-Romans  defended  him  with 
all  their  might.  At  last  an  Insubrian  trooper  (his  name  was 
Ducarius),  recognising  him  also  by  his  face,  cried  to  his  com- 
rades :  "  See !  this  is  the  man  who  slaughtered  our  legions,  and 
laid  waste  our  fields  and  our  city ;  I  will  offer  him  as  a  sacri- 
fice to  the  shades  of  my  countrymen  whom  he  so  foully  slew.'* 
Putting  spurs  to  his  horse,  he  charged  through  the  thickest 
of  the  enemy,  struck  down  the  armour-bearer  who  threw  him- 
self in  the  way  of  his  furious  advance,  and  ran  the  consul 
through  with  his  lance.  When  he  would  have  stripped  the 
body,  some  veterans  thrust  their  shields  between  and  hin- 
dered him. 

Then  began  the  flight  of  a  great  part  of  the  army.  And 
now  neither  lake  nor  mountain  checked  their  rush  of  panic; 
by  every  defile  and  height  they  sought  blindly  to  escape,  and 
arms  and  men  were  heaped  upon  each  other.  Many,  finding 
no  possibility  of  flight,  waded  into  the  shallows  at  the  edge  of 
the  lake,  advanced  until  they  had  only  head  and  shoulders 
above  the  water,  and  at  last  drowned  themselves.  Some  in 
the  frenzy  of  panic  endeavoured  to  escape  by  swimming;  but 
the  endeavour  was  endless  and  hopeless,  and  they  either  sank 
in  the  depths  when  their  courage  failed  them,  or  they  wearied 
themselves  in  vain  till  they  could  hardly  struggle  back  to  the 
shallows,  where  they  were  slaughtered  in  crowds  by  the  ene- 
my's cavalry  which  had  now  entered  the  water.  Nearly  six 
thousand  men  of  the  vanguard  made  a  determined  rush 
through  the  enemy,  and  got  clear  out  of  the  defile,  knowing 
nothing  of  what  was  happening  behind  them.  Halting  on 
some  high  ground,  they  could  only  hear  the  shouts  of  men 
and  clashing  of  arms,  but  could  not  learn  or  see  for  the  mist 
how  the  day  was  going.  It  was  when  the  battle  was  decided 
that  the  increasing  heat  of  the  sun  scattered  the  mist  and 
cleared  the  sky.  The  bright  light  that  now  rested  on  hill  and 
plain  showed  a  ruinous  defeat  and  a  Roman  army  shamefully 
routed.  Fearing  that  they  might  be  seen  in  the  distance  and 
that  the  cavalry  might  be  sent  against  them,  they  took  up  their 


300  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  217 

standards  and  hurried  away  with  all  the  speed  they  could. 
The  next  day,  finding  their  situation  generally  desperate,  and 
starvation  also  imminent,  they  capitulated  to  Maharbal,1  who 
had  overtaken  them  with  the  whole  of  his  cavalry,  and  who 
pledged  his  word  that  if  they  would  surrender  their  arms,  they 
should  go  free,  each  man  having  a  single  garment.  The 
promise  was  kept  with  Punic  faith  by  Hannibal,  who  put  them 
all  in  chains. 

Such  was  the  famous  fight  at  Trasumennus,  memorable  as 
few  other  disasters  of  the  Roman  people  have  been.  Fifteen 
thousand  men  fell  in  the  battle ;  ten  thousand,  flying  in  all  di- 
rections over  Etruria,  made  by  different  roads  for  Rome.  Of 
the  enemy  two  thousand  five  hundred  fell  in  the  battle.  Many 
died  afterward  of  their  wounds.  Other  authors  speak  of  a  loss 
on  both  sides  many  times  greater.  I  am  myself  adverse  to 
the  idle  exaggeration  to  which  writers  are  so  commonly  in- 
clined, and  I  have  here  followed  as  my  best  authority  Fabius, 
who  was  actually  contemporary  with  the  war.  Hannibal 
released  without  ransom  all  the  prisoners  who  claimed  Latin 
citizenship ;  the  Romans  he  imprisoned.  He  had  the  corpses 
of  his  own  men  separated  from  the  vast  heaps  of  dead, 
and  buried.  Careful  search  was  also  made  for  the  body  of 
Flaminius,  to  which  he  wished  to  pay  due  honour,  but  it  could 
not  be  found. 

At  Rome  the  first  tidings  of  this  disaster  brought  a  terror- 
stricken  and  tumultuous  crowd  into  the  forum.  The  ma- 
trons wandered  through  the  streets  and  asked  all  whom  they 
met  what  was  this  disaster  of  which  news  had  just  arrived,  and 
how  the  army  had  fared.  A  crowd,  thick  as  a  thronged  as- 
sembly, with  eyes  intent  upon  the  senate-house,  called  aloud 
for  the  magistrates,  till  at  last,  not  long  before  sunset,  the  prae- 
tor, Marcus  Pomponius,  said,  "  We  have  been  beaten  in  a 
great  battle."  Nothing  more  definite  than  this  was  said  by 
him ;  but  each  man  had  reports  without  end  to  tell  his  neigh- 
bour; and  the  news  which  they  carried  back  to  their  homes 
was  that  the  consul  had  perished  with  a  great  part  of  his  troops, 
that  the  few  who  had  survived  were  either  dispersed  through- 
out Etruria,  or  taken  prisoners  by  the  enemy. 

The  mischances  of  the  beaten  army  were  not  more  numer- 

1  Polybius  and  Livy  are  at  variance  as  to  the  scene  of  this  battle,  the 
former  making  the  Roman  army  to  have  turned  from  the  lake  into  the 
defile  of  Passignano  before  the  attack  was  delivered.  They  would  then 
have  had  the  lake  in  their  rear.  I  have  walked  over  the  ground,  and  am 
strongly  inclined  to  side  with  the  Roman  historian.  The  topographical 
conditions  apply  perfectly  if  we  take  the  hill  on  which  Tuoro  now  stands 
as  the  centre  of  the  Carthaginian  position. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  2i;]  THE  NEWS  AT  ROME  301 

ous  than  the  anxieties  which  distracted  the  minds  of  those 
whose  relatives  had  served  under  Flaminius.  All  were  utterly 
ignorant  how  this  or  that  kinsman  had  fared ;  no  one  even 
quite  knew  what  to  hope  or  to  fear.  On  the  morrow,  and  for 
some  days  after,  there  stood  at  the  gates  a  crowd  in  which  the 
women  even  outnumbered  the  men,  waiting  to  see  their  rela- 
tives or  hear  some  tidings  about  them.  They  thronged  round 
all  whom  they  met,  with  incessant  questions,  and  could  not 
tear  themselves  away,  least  of  all  leave  any  acquaintance,  till 
they  had  heard  the  whole  story  to  an  end.  Different  indeed 
were  their  looks  as  they  turned  away  from  the  tale  which  had 
filled  them  either  with  joy  or  grief,  and  friends  crowded  round 
to  congratulate  or  console  them  as  they  returned  to  their 
homes.  The  women  were  most  conspicuous  for  their  trans- 
ports and  their  grief.  Within  one  of  the  very  gates,  a  woman 
unexpectedly  meeting  a  son  who  had  escaped,  died,  it  is  said, 
in  his  embrace ;  another  who  had  had  false  tidings  of  her  son's 
death  and  sat  sorrowing  at  home,  expired  from  excessive  joy 
when  she  caught  sight  of  him  entering  the  house.  The  prae- 
tors for  some  days  kept  the  senate  in  constant  session  from 
sunrise  to  sunset,  deliberating  who  was  to  lead  an  army,  and 
what  army  was  to  be  led  against  the  victorious  foe. 

Before  any  definite  plans  could  be  formed,  there  came 
without  warning  news  of  another  disaster.  Four  thousand 
cavalry,  sent  with  the  consul  Servilius  under  the  command  of 
the  pro-praetor  Caius  Centenius  to  the  help  of  Flaminius,  had 
been  surrounded  by  Hannibal  in  Umbria,  into  which  country 
they  had  marched  on  hearing  of  the  battle  at  Trasumennus. 
The  tidings  of  this  occurrence  affected  men  very  variously. 
Some,  whose  thoughts  were  wholly  occupied  by  the  greater 
trouble,  counted  this  fresh  loss  of  a  body  of  cavalry  a  mere  trifle 
in  comparison  with  the  previous  disasters ;  others  felt  that  this 
incident  could  not  be  taken  as  standing  by  itself.  In  a  weak- 
ened frame  the  most  insignificant  thing  is  felt  as  things  far 
more  serious  are  not  felt  in  the  healthy ;  so,  they  argued,  any 
loss  that  falls  upon  a  suffering  and  weakened  state  must  be 
estimated  not  by  its  intrinsic  magnitude,  but  by  the  impaired 
strength,  which  can  endure  nothing  that  would  increase  its 
burden.  The  country  hastily  betook  itself  to  a  remedy  which 
had  not  been  either  wanted  or  employed  for  many  years,  the 
creation  of  a  dictator.  But  the  consul  was  absent,  and  it  was 
the  consul  only,  it  would  seem,  who  could  create  him ;  it  was 
no  easy  matter  to  send  him  a  messenger  or  a  letter  with  the 
Carthaginian  army  in  possession  of  Italy ;  nor  could  the  sen- 
ate make  a  dictator  without  consulting  the  people.  In  the 


302  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  217 

end  a  step  wholly  unprecedented  was  taken.  The  people 
created  Quintus  Fabius  Maximus  dictator,  and  Marcus  Minu- 
cius  Rufus  master  of  the  horse.  The  senate  charged  them 
to  strengthen  the  walls  and  towers  of  the  city,  to  put  gar- 
risons in  whatever  places  they  thought  best,  and  to  break 
down  the  bridges  over  the  rivers.  Italy  they  could  not  de- 
fend, but  they  could  still  fight  for  their  city  and  their  homes. 

Hannibal  marched  straight  through  Umbria  to  Spoletum,1 
From  this  place  he  was  repulsed  with  great  loss,  when,  after 
devastating  the  country,  he  attempted  the  city  by  assault.  It 
was  not  one  of  the  largest  colonies,  and  having  tried  its 
strength  with  such  ill  success,  he  was  led  to  reflect  what  a  vast 
undertaking  Rome  itself  would  be.  Accordingly,  he  turned 
aside  to  the  territory  of  Picenum,  a  country  abounding  in 
produce  of  every  kind,  and  richly  stored  with  property  which 
the  rapacious  and  needy  soldiery  plundered  with  eagerness. 
There  he  kept  his  army  stationary  for  a  few  days,  refreshing 
his  men,  exhausted  by  winter  marches,  by  their  passage 
through  the  marshes,  and  by  a  battle,  which,  however  success- 
ful in  its  issue,  had  been  no  slight  or  easy  struggle.  A  short 
rest  was  enough  for  a  soldiery  which  loved  plunder  and  ravage 
more  than  ease  and  repose.  Then  moving  forward  he  wasted 
the  district  of  Praetutia  and  Hadria,  and  next  the  country  of 
the  Marsi,  Marrucini,  and  Peligni,  with  the  region  round  Arpi 
and  Luceria,  near  the  borders  of  Apulia.2  The  consul  Cn. 
Servilius  had  had  meanwhile  some  slight  engagements  with 
the  Gauls,  and  had  stormed  one  town  of  no  note.  When  he 
heard  that  the  other  consul  with  his  army  had  perished,  he 
trembled  for  his  country's  safety,  and  resolving  not  to  be  ab- 
sent in  its  hour  of  peril,  marched  rapidly  to  Rome. 

On  the  day  that  Q.  Fabius  Maximus,  who  was  now  dicta- 
tor for  the  second  time,  entered  upon  his  office,  he  convoked 
the  senate.  He  began  with  mention  of  the  gods ;  it  was,  he 
proved  to  the  senators,  in  neglect  of  religious  rites  and  aus- 
pices rather  than  in  rashness  and  want  of  skill  that  the  error  of 
Flaminius  had  lain,  and  Heaven  itself,  he  urged,  must  be  asked 
how  the  anger  of  Heaven  could  be  propitiated.  He  thus  pre- 
vailed upon  them  to  do  what  is  scarcely  ever  done  except  when 
the  most  sinister  marvels  have  been  observed,  to  order  the  Ten 
to  consult  the  books  of  the  Sibyl.  They  inspected  the  volumes 
of  destiny,  and  reported  to  the  senate  that,  seeing  that  a  vow  to 
Mars  was  the  cause  of  the  war,  this  vow,  not  having  been  duly 
performed,  must  be  performed  anew  and  on  a  larger  scale, 

1  Spoleto. — D.  O. 

*  He  marched  southward  along  the  coast  of  the  Adriatic. — D.  O. 


B.C.  217]       FABIUS   MAXIMUS   MADE   DICTATOR  303 

that  games  of  the  first  class  must  be  vowed  to  Jupiter,  a  tem- 
ple to  Venus  of  Eryx  and  another  to  Reason,  that  there  must 
be  a  public  supplication  and  a  banquet  of  the  gods  and  a  holy 
spring  vowed,  if  the  arms  of  Rome  should  be  found  to  have 
prospered  and  the  state  to  remain  in  the  same  position  which  it 
had  occupied  before  the  war.  The  senate,  knowing  that  Fabius 
would  be  occupied  with  the  business  of  the  campaign,  directed 
the  praetor,  Marcus  ^milius,  who  had  been  nominated  by  the 
College  of  Pontiffs,  to  see  all  things  speedily  done. 

These  resolutions  of  the  senate  duly  passed,  Lucius  Cor- 
nelius Lentulus,  chief  pontiff,  declared  (for  the  praetor  had  the 
advice  of  the  Sacred  College)  that  the  people  must  be  con- 
sulted about  the  holy  spring.  Without  the  people's  consent 
it  could  not,  he  said,  be  vowed.  The  question  was  put  to  the 
people  in  these  words :  "  Is  it  your  will  and  pleasure  that  it 
shall  be  done  as  is  hereinafter  set  forth  ?  If  the  common  weal 
of  the  Roman  people  and  of  the  Quirites  be  kept,  according  to 
my  wish  and  prayer,  whole  and  safe  for  the  five  years  next  fol- 
lowing in  these  wars,  to  wit,  the  war  that  now  is  with  the  peo- 
ple of  Carthage,  and  the  wars  that  now  are  with  the  Gauls 
dwelling  on  the  hither  side  of  the  Alps,  then  the  Roman  people 
and  the  Quirites  give  as  a  free  gift  all  the  increase  in  the 
spring  next  following  of  swine,  sheep,  goats,  cattle,  not  being 
already  consecrated,  to  be  sacrificed  to  Jupiter,  on  and  after 
the  day  which  the  said  senate  and  people  shall  appoint.  And 
whosoever  shall  sacrifice,  he  may  sacrifice  whensoever  and 
after  what  order  it  shall  please  him.  In  what  manner  soever 
he  shall  sacrifice,  it  shall  be  counted  duly  done.  If  that  which 
should  be  sacrificed  die,  then  shall  it  be  counted  as  a  thing  un- 
consecrated,  and  the  man  shall  be  free.  If  any  one  should 
hurt  or  slay  a  consecrated  thing,  not  knowing,  he  shall  be  in- 
nocent. If  aught  should  be  stolen,  the  people  shall  be  free 
and  also  he  from  whom  it  hath  been  stolen.  If  a  man  shall 
sacrifice  on  an  inauspicious  day  *  not  knowing,  he  shall  be  in- 
nocent. If  he  shall  sacrifice  by  day  or  by  night,  if  he  shall 
sacrifice,  being  a  slave  or  free,  it  shall  be  counted  duly  done. 
If  aught  shall  be  sacrificed  before  that  the  senate  and  the  peo- 
ple shall  have  ordered  such  sacrifices,  the  people  shall  be  free 
and  acquitted  therefrom."  For  the  same  reason  games  of  the 
first  class  were  vowed  at  a  cost  of  three  hundred  and  thirty 
thousand  three  hundred  and  thirty-three  brass  pieces  and  a 
third,  with  three  hundred  oxen  besides  to  Jupiter,  and  white 
oxen  and  the  other  customary  victims  to  many  other  deities. 

1  Literally  :  "black  day."    These  were  for  the  most  part  anniversaries 
of  national  misfortunes. — D.  O. 


304  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  C.  217 

When  the  vows  had  been  duly  made,  a  public  supplication 
was  ordered,  to  join  in  which  not  only  the  population  of  the 
city  came  with  their  wives  and  children,  but  also  the  coun- 
try folk,  whom  the  public  troubles  were  now  beginning 
to  touch  in  some  of  their  interests.  Then  a  sacred  banquet 
was  held  for  three  days,  under  the  care  of  ten  ecclesiastical 
commissioners.  Six  banqueting  tables  were  publicly  exhib- 
ited, to  Jupiter  and  Juno  one,  a  second  to  Neptune  and  Mi- 
nerva, a  third  to  Mars  and  Venus,  a  fourth  to  Apollo  and 
Diana,  a  fifth  to  Vulcan  and  Vesta,  a  sixth  to  Mercury  and 
Ceres.1  Then  the  two  temples  were  vowed,  that  to  Venus  of 
Eryx  by  the  dictator,  Q.  Fabius  Maximus,  because  it  had  been 
given  forth  from  the  books  of  destiny  that  the  vow  should  be 
made  by  him  who  held  the  supreme  authority  in  the  state ;  that 
to  Reason  by  the  praetor,  T.  Otacilius. 

The  duties  of  religion  thus  discharged,  the  dictator  brought 
the  state  of  the  war  and  of  the  country  before  the  senate, 
which  had  ta  determine  what  and  how  many  should  be  the 
legions  with  which  the  victorious  enemy  must  be  met.  It 
was  resolved  that  he  should  take  over  the  army  of  the  consul 
Servilius,  should  enlist  into  the  cavalry  and  infantry  as  many 
citizens  and  allies  as  he  thought  fit,  and  should  generally  act  as 
he  considered  best  for  the  good  of  the  state.  Fabius  said  that 
he  should  add  two  legions  to  the  army  of  Servilius.  These 
the  master  of  the  horse  was  to  levy,  and  the  dictator  named 
a  day  on  which  they  were  to  assemble  at  Tibur.2  He  made 
proclamation  that  all  inhabitants  of  unfortified  towns  and 
stations  should  remove  into  places  of  safety,  that  all  the  popu- 
lation of  the  country  through  which  Hannibal  was  likely  to 
pass  should  desert  it,  first  burning  all  buildings  and  destroy- 
ing all  crops,  that  he  might  find  no  supplies.  He  then  marched 
along  the  Flaminian  Road  3  to  meet  the  consul. 

On  reaching  the  Tiber,  near  Ocriculum,  he  came  in  view  of 
the  army  and  saw  the  consul  advancing  toward  him  with  some 
cavalry;  upon  this  he  sent  his  apparitor  with  a  message  to 
the  consul  that  he  was  to  come  to  the  dictator  without  his  lie- 
tors.  The  consul  obeyed  him,  and  their  meeting  produced  a 
vast  impression  on  citizens  and  allies,  who  had  almost  for- 
gotten what  this  obsolete  office  of  dictator  meant.  Then  came 
despatches  from  Rome  with  news  that  some  merchantmen, 

1  The  twelve  "  dei  consentes  "  who  formed  the  Council  of  Jove. — D.  O. 

*  Tivoli.— D.  O. 

1  Built  by  the  late  consul,  Flaminius.  It  ran  from  the  Porta  Ratu- 
mena  just  under  the  north  slope  of  the  citadel  northeastward  along 
Tibur.— D.  O, 


B.  C.  217]  TACTICS  OF  FABIUS  305 

carrying  stores  from  Ostia  to  the  army  in  Spain,  had  been 
taken  by  a  Carthaginian  fleet  near  the  harbour  of  Cosa.  Fa- 
bius  immediately  ordered  the  consul  to  start  for  Ostia,  to  man 
any  ships  that  might  be  there  or  at  Rome  with  soldiers  and 
seamen,  to  pursue  the  enemy's  fleet,  and  to  protect  the  coasts 
of  Italy.  A  vast  number  of  men  had  been  enlisted  at  Rome. 
Even  freedmen,  having  children  and  being  of  the  military  age, 
had  taken  the  oath.  Out  of  these  city  troops  such  as  were 
under  thirty-five  were  sent  to  man  the  ships,  others  were  left 
to  garrison  the  city. 

The  dictator  took  over  the  consul's  army  from  the  hands  of 
Fulvius  Flaccus,  second  in  command,  and  then,  traversing  the 
Sabine  country,  came  to  Tibur,  where  he  had  commanded  the 
new  levies  to  meet  by  a  certain  day.  From  Tibur  he  marched 
to  Praeneste,  and  so,  by  cross  ways,  to  the  Latin  Road;  and 
then,  always  reconnoitring  his  ground  most  carefully,  ad- 
vanced against  the  enemy,  resolved  nowhere  to  risk  anything 
more  than  necessity  might  compel.  The  first  day  that  he 
pitched  his  camp  in  sight  of  the  enemy  (the  place  was  not  far 
from  Arpi),1  Hannibal,  without  a  moment's  delay,  led  out  his 
men  and  offered  battle.  When  he  saw  that  all  was  quiet  in  the 
Roman  army,  and  that  there  was  no  sign  of  any  stir  in  their 
camp,  he  returned  to  his  quarters,  loudly  exclaiming  that  at 
last  the  martial  spirit  of  Rome  was  broken — they  had  made 
open  confession  of  defeat  and  yielded  the  palm  of  glory  and 
valour.  But  in  his  heart  was  a  secret  fear  that  he  had  now  to 
deal  with  a  general  very  different  from  Flaminius  or  Sem- 
pronius,  and  that,  taught  by  disasters,  the  Romans  had  at  last 
found  a  general  equal  to  himself.  He  felt  at  once  afraid  of 
the  wariness  of  the  new  dictator;  of  his  firmness  he  had  not 
yet  made  trial,  and  so  began  to  harass  and  provoke  him  by 
repeatedly  moving  his  camp  and  wasting  under  his  eyes  the 
territory  of  the  allies.  At  one  time  he  would  make  a  rapid 
march  and  disappear;  at  another  he  would  make  a  sudden 
halt,  concealed  in  some  winding  road,  where  he  hoped  that 
he  might  catch  his  antagonist  descending  to  the  plain.  Fa- 
bius  continued  to  move  his  forces  along  high  ground,  preserv- 
ing a  moderate  distance  from  the  enemy,  neither  letting  him 
out  of  his  sight  nor  encountering  him.  He  kept  his  soldiers 
within  their  camp,  unless  they  were  required  for  some  neces- 
sary service.  When  they  went  in  quest  of  forage  or  wood,  it 
was  not  in  small  parties  or  at  random.  Pickets  of  cavalry  and 
light  troops  were  told  off  and  kept  in  readiness  to  meet  sud- 
den alarms,  a  constant  protection  to  his  own  troops,  a  con- 

1  Near  Foggia,  in  Apulia. — P.  Ot 
2Q 


306  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  €.217 

stant  terror  to  the  vagrant  marauders  of  the  enemy.  He  re- 
fused to  stake  his  all  on  the  hazard  of  a  general  engagement, 
but  slight  enounters,  of  little  importance  with  a  refuge  so 
near,  could  be  easily  ventured  on ;  and  a  soldiery  demoralized 
by  former  disasters  were  thus  habituated  to  think  more  hope- 
fully of  their  own  courage  and  good  luck.  But  these  sober 
counsels  found  an  adversary  not  only  in  Hannibal,  but  quite 
as  much  in  his  own  master  of  the  horse,  who,  headstrong  and 
rash  in  counsel  and  intemperate  in  speech,  was  kept  from  ruin- 
ing his  country  only  by  the  want  of  power.  First  to  a  few  lis- 
teners, then  openly  before  the  ranks  of  the  army,  he  stigmatized 
his  commander  as  more  indolent  than  deliberate,  more  cow- 
ardly than  cautious,  fastening  on  him  failings  which  were  akin 
to  his  real  virtues,  and  seeking  to  exalt  himself  by  lowering 
his  chief — a  vile  art,  which  has  often  thriven  by  a  too  success- 
ful practice. 

Hannibal  passed  from  the  territory  of  the  Hirpini  into  Sam- 
nium,  ravaged  the  country  round  Beneventum,  and  took  the 
town  of  Telesia,  still  purposely  provoking  the  Roman  general, 
in  the  hope  that  the  insults  and  injuries  inflicted  on  the  allies 
might  rouse  him  into  fighting  a  pitched  battle.  Among  the 
crowd  of  Italian  allies  who  had  been  taken  prisoners  at  Trasu- 
mennus  by  Hannibal  and  set  at  liberty,  were  three  Campanian 
knights,  whom  the  Carthaginians  had  then  won  over,  by  liberal 
gifts  and  promises,  to  undertake  the  task  of  conciliating  to 
him  the  affections  of  their  countrymen.  They  now  came  and 
told  him  that  if  he  would  move  his  army  into  Campania,  he 
would  have  an  opportunity  of  securing  Capua ; 1  the  matter 
seemed  too  important  for  the  authority  on  which  it  rested ; 
Hannibal  now  doubted,  now  believed,  but  was  so  far  moved 
as  to  make  his  way  from  Campania  into  Samnium.  His  in- 
formants he  sent  away  with  repeated  warnings  that  they  must 
give  some  substantial  proof  of  their  promises,  and  with  in- 
structions to  return  to  him  with  a  more  numerous  company, 
some  of  whom  must  be  men  of  importance.  He  gave  per- 
sonal orders  to  the  guide  to  take  him  to  the  territory  of  Casi- 
num,  those  who  knew  the  country  having  informed  him  that 
by  occupying  that  pass  he  could  close  the  outlet  by  which  the 
Romans  might  send  help  to  their  allies.  But  the  Carthagin- 
ian pronunciation  was  so  different  from  the  Latin,  that  the 
guide  mistook  Casinum  2  for  Casilinum,3  and  Hannibal,  taken 

1  The  ancient  city  stood  where  the  town  of  S.  Maria  di  Capua  Vetere 
now  stands. — D.  O. 

*  Now  Casino.  It  lay  in  the  mountains  near  the  southern  border  of 
Latium.— D.  O.  *  The  modern  Capua.— D.  O. 


B.  c.  217]    MINUCIUS  ADDRESSES  THE  SOLDIERS  307 

out  of  his  intended  route,  came  down  through  Allifae,  Callifae, 
and  Cales,1  on  the  plains  of  Stella.  When  he  looked  round  on 
the  country,  which  is  shut  in  by  hills  and  rivers,  he  sent  for 
the  guide  and  asked  him  where  in  the  world  he  was.  The  man 
told  him  that  he  would  have  his  quarters  that  day  at  Casilinum. 
Then  at  last  he  discovered  the  mistake,  and  heard  that  Casi- 
num  was  far  away  in  another  direction.  The  guide  was 
scourged  and  crucified,  to  terrify  his  fellows.  Hannibal  then 
fortified  his  camp,  and  sent  out  Maharbal  with  his  cavalry  to 
plunder  the  Falernian  Plain.2  His  ravages  extended  as  far 
as  the  Baths  of  Sinuessa.  Great  was  the  damage,  but  yet 
greater  and  more  widespread  were  the  panic  and  terror  caused 
by  the  Numidian  horsemen ;  but  though  war  raged  all  around 
them,  all  its  terrors  failed  to  shake  the  loyalty  of  our  allies. 
The  truth  was  that  they  were  under  a  righteous  and  moderate 
rule,  and  they  yielded — and  this  is  the  only  true  bond  of  loy- 
alty— a  willing  obedience  to  their  betters. 

But  when  Hannibal  had  encamped  by  the  Vulturnus,  and 
the  fairest  lands  of  Italy  were  being  wasted  by  fire,  and  the 
smoke  of  burning  houses  went  up  in  every  direction,  then  the 
mutinous  spirit  almost  broke  out  afresh  in  the  army  which 
Fabius  was  leading  along  the  ridge  of  the  Massic  range.  For 
some  days,  indeed,  the  troops  had  been  quiet ;  the  army  had 
been  marching  more  rapidly  than  usual,  and  they  had  fancied 
that  this  haste  was  to  save  Campania  from  ravage.  But  when 
they  reached  the  last  spur  on  the  Massic  range  and  saw 
the  enemy  beneath  them  burning  every  building  in  the  Faler- 
nian district,  or  belonging  to  the  citizens  of  Sinuessa,  and  yet 
heard  not  a  word  about  fighting,  then  Minucius  broke  forth : 
"  Have  we  come  hither  to  see,  as  though  it  were  some  delight- 
ful spectacle,  our  allies  wasted  by  fire  and  sword  ?  Are  we  not 
ashamed  to  think — if  of  none  else — yet  at  least  of  these  fellow- 
citizens  of  ours,  whom  our  fathers  sent  to  colonize  Sinuessa, 
and  so  protect  this  region  from  Samnite  enemies ;  and  now  it 
is  not  the  Samnite  from  beyond  the  border,  but  the  Cartha- 
ginian from  beyond  the  sea  that  has  been  allowed  by  our  de- 
lays and  our  indolence  to  make  his  way  hither  from  the  very 
ends  of  the  earth  ?  We  have  so  degenerated  from  our  fathers 
that  we  calmly  see  the  very  country,  by  whose  shores  they 
thought  it  an  insult  to  our  power  for  a  Carthaginian  fleet  to 
cruise,  crowded  with  enemies,  savages  from  Numidia  and 
Mauretania.  We,  too,  who  the  other  day,  in  our  wrath  that 
Saguntum  should  be  assailed,  appealed  not  only  to  men,  but  to 

1  The  modern  village  of  Calvi  occupies  its  site. — D.  O. 
1  It  lay  along  the  valley  of  the  Volturnus. — D.  O. 


LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  217 

Heaven  and  the  faith  of  treaties,  now  idly  gaze  on  Hannibal  as 
he  climbs  the  walls  of  a  colony  of  Rome.  The  smoke  from 
burning  houses  and  fields  is  blown  into  our  eyes  and  faces ; 
our  ears  are  deafened  with  the  clamour  of  allies  who  cry  for 
help  to  us  even  more  than  to  the  gods.  And  we  are  leading 
our  army,  as  if  they  were  cattle,  through  summer  pastures  and 
out-of-the-way  tracks,  hiding  ourselves  in  mists  and  forests. 
If  Marcus  Furius  had  thought  to  recover  our  capital  from  the 
Gauls  by  this  plan  of  wandering  over  pastures  and  hills  by 
which  this  new  Camillus,  this  wonderful  dictator,  who  has 
been  found  for  us  in  our  troubles,  is  seeking  to  save  Italy  from 
Hannibal,  Rome  would  now  be  a  city  of  the  Gauls ;  and  much 
I  fear  that,  if  we  thus  linger,  our  fathers  saved  it  again  and 
again  for  Hannibal  and  the  Carthaginians.  But  that  true  man 
and  true  Roman,  as  soon  as  tidings  came  to  Veii  that  he 
had  been  named  dictator  at  the  instance  of  the  senate,  and  bid- 
ding of  the  people,  though  Janiculum  was  quite  high  enough 
for  him  to  sit  and  survey  the  enemy,  came  down  to  the  plain, 
and  slaughtered  the  legions  of  the  Gaul  on  that  very  day  in 
the  middle  of  the  city  where  now  stand  the  Gauls'  '  Tombs/ 
and  on  the  next  day  between  Rome  and  Gabii.  What?  when 
many  years  after  this  we  were  sent  under  the  yoke  at  the  Cau- 
dine  Forks  by  our  Samnite  foes,  was  it,  pray,  by  wandering 
over  the  Samnite  hills,  or  by  assailing  and  beleaguering  Lu- 
ceria,  and  by  challenging  the  victorious  enemy  that  L.  Papirius 
Cursor  shook  the  yoke  from  off  Roman  necks  and  placed 
it  on  the  haughty  Samnite  ?  What  was  it  a  few  years  ago  but 
speedy  action  that  gave  Caius  Lutatius  his  victory  ?  The  very 
day  after  catching  sight  of  the  enemy,  he  destroyed  their  fleet,1 
burdened  as  it  was  with  stores,  and  hampered  with  its  own 
tackling  and  equipment.  It  is  folly  to  think  that  the  war  can 
be  finished  by  sitting  still  and  praying.  You  must  take  your 
arms ;  you  must  go  down  to  the  plain ;  you  must  meet  the 
enemy  man  to  man.  It  is  by  boldness  and  action  that  the 
power  of  Rome  has  grown,  not  by  these  counsels  of  indolence, 
which  only  cowards  call  caution." 

A  throng  of  tribunes  and  Roman  knights  crowded  round 
Minucius  as  he  played  the  popular  orator,  and  his  fierce  words 
reached  even  to  the  ears  of  the  soldiers.  All  showed  plainly 
enough  that,  if  the  matter  could  have  been  put  to  a  vote  of 
the  army,  they  would  have  had  Minucius  rather  than  Fabius 
for  their  leader. 

Fabius  had  to  be  on  his  guard  against  his  own  men  just 

1  At  the  vEgusan  Islands.  The  victory  ended  the  first  Punic  war. — 
D.  O. 


B.  C.  217]  SURROUNDING  THE   ENEMY  309 

as  much  as  against  the  enemy,  and  made  them  feel  that  they 
could  not  conquer  his  resolution.  Though  he  knew  well  that 
his  policy  of  delay  was  odious,  not  only  in  his  own  camp,  but 
also  at  Rome,  yet  he  steadfastly  adhered  to  the  same  plan  of 
action,  and  so  let  the  summer  wear  away,  till  Hannibal,  losing 
all  hope  of  the  pitched  battle,  which  he  had  made  every  effort 
to  bring  on,  began  to  look  out  for  a  place  for  winter  quarters, 
the  country  which  he  occupied  being  one  of  temporary  rather 
than  permanent  plenty,  a  land  of  orchards  and  vineyards 
planted  rather  for  pleasure  than  utility.  Fabius  learned  all 
this  from  his  scouts.  When  he  was  quite  sure  that  Hannibal 
meant  to  leave  the  Falernian  country  by  the  same  passes  by 
which  he  had  entered  it,  he  occupied  Mount  Callicula  and 
Casilinum  in  some  force.  The  town  of  Casilinum  is  divided 
into  two  parts  by  the  river  Vulturnus,  and  thus  separates  the 
Falernian  country  from  Campania.  His  main  army  he  led 
back  along  the  same  range,  while  he  sent  L.  Hostilius  Man- 
cinus  to  reconnoitre  with  five  hundred  cavalry  of  the  allies. 
Mancinus  was  one  of  the  crowd  of  youths  who  frequently 
listened  to  the  fierce  harangues  of  the  master  of  the  horse. 
At  first  he  moved  simply  as  the  leader  of  a  reconnaissance, 
watching  the  enemy  from  a  place  of  safety,  but  When  he  saw 
the  Numidian  troops  scattered  everywhere  in  the  villages,  and 
even  cut  off  a  few  of  them  by  a  sudden  surprise,  he  was  at 
once  full  of  the  thought  of  battle,  and  wholly  forgot  the  dic- 
tator's instructions,  which  were  that  he  should  advance  as  far 
as  he  safely  could,  but  should  retreat  before  he  could  be  seen 
by  the  enemy.  The  Numidians,  now  attacking,  now  retreat- 
ing, drew  him  on,  his  men  and  horses  alike  exhausted,  to  the 
very  rampart  of  their  camp.  Here  Carthalo,  who  was  in 
supreme  command  of  the  cavalry,  charged  at  full  gallop, 
sent  his  adversay  flying  before  he  came  within  javelin  throw, 
and  followed  the  fugitives  for  five  miles  continuously.  When 
Mancinus  saw  that  the  enemy  would  not  desist  from  the  pur- 
suit, and  that  he  had  no  hope  of  escaping,  he  encouraged  his 
men,  and  turned  to  fight,  though  in  no  respect  was  he  a  match 
for  his  foe.  And  so  he  and  the  best  of  his  troopers  were  sur- 
rounded and  slain;  the  others  made  their  escape  in  wild  con- 
fusion, first  to  Cales,  and  thence  by  tracks  which  were  scarcely 
passable  to  the  dictator's  army. 

It  so  happened  that  Minucius  had  that  day  rejoined  Fabius. 
He  had  been  sent  to  post  a  force  in  the  pass  above  Tarra- 
cina,  where  it  contracts  into  a  gorge  close  upon  the  sea.  This 
was  to  prevent  the  Carthaginian  from  making  his  way  along 
the  Appian  Road  into  the  country  round  Rome.  Having 


3IO  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.217 

united  their  forces,  the  dictator  and  the  master  of  the  horse 
moved  their  camp  down  from  the  hills  on  to  the  road  along 
which  Hannibal  would  have  to  march.1  The  distance  between 
them  and  the  enemy  was  two  miles. 

The  following  day  the  Carthaginian  army  occupied  the 
whole  space  between  the  two  camps.  The  Romans  had  taken 
up  a  position  close  under  their  intrenchments.  Though  it  cer- 
tainly gave  them  an  advantage,  yet  the  Carthaginians  ad- 
vanced with  their  light  cavalry  to  provoke  a  battle.  They 
fought,  alternately  charging  and  retreating.  The  Roman 
army  kept  its  ground.  The  conflict  was  protracted,  and  more 
to  the  satisfaction  of  Fabius  than  of  Hannibal.  Two  hundred 
of  the  Romans,  eight  hundred  of  the  enemy  fell. 

Hannibal  now  seemed  shut  in.  The  road  to  Casilinum  was 
blocked;  and  while  there  were  Capua,  and  Samnium,  and 
wealthy  allies  without  end  in  their  rear  to  furnish  the  Romans 
with  supplies,  the  Carthaginians  would  have  to  winter  amid 
the  rocks  of  Formiae,  the  sands  and  marshes  of  Liternum,  and 
in  wild  forests.  Hannibal  was  quite  aware  that  he  was  being 
met  by  a  stategy  like  his  own,  as  he  could  not  escape  by  way 
of  Casilinum,  but  must  make  for  the  hills  and  cross  the  ridge 
of  Callicula,  before  the  Romans  could  attack  his  army,  shut 
in  as  it  was  by  the  valleys.  Accordingly,  to  deceive  his  foe, 
he  contrived  an  optical  illusion  of  most  alarming  appearance, 
and  resolved  to  move  stealthily  up  the  hills  at  nightfall.  The 
deception  was  thus  arranged :  Firewood  was  collected  from  all 
the  country  round,  and  bundles  of  twigs  and  dry  fagots  were 
fastened  to  the  horns  of  oxen,  of  which  he  had  many,  from  the 
plundered  rural  districts,  both  broken  and  unbroken  to  the 
plough.  Upward  of  two  thousand  oxen  were  thus  treated, 
and  Hasdrubal  was  intrusted  with  the  business  of  driving  this 
herd,  with  their  horns  alight,  on  to  the  hills,  more  particu- 
larly, if  he  could,  to  those  above  the  passes  occupied  by  the 
enemy. 

In  the  dusk  of  evening,  he  silently  struck  his  camp;  the 
oxen  were  driven  a  little  in  front  of  the  standards.  When 
they  reached  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  where  the  roads  nar- 
rowed, the  signal  was  immediately  given  to  hurry  the  herd 
with  their  horns  alight  up  the  slope  of  the  hills.  They  rushed 
on,  goaded  into  madness  by  the  terror  of  the  flames  which 
flashed  from  their  heads,  and  by  the  heat  which  soon  reached 
the  flesh  at  the  root  of  their  horns.  At  this  sudden  rush  all  the 

1  It  would  seem  that  Fabius,  having  secured  the  passes  to  the  north 
and  east,  had  encamped  his  main  army  in  the  plain  in  the  rear  of  the 
Carthaginians. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  2i;]        HANNIBAL  ESCAPES  BY   STRATEGY  311 

thickets  seemed  to  be  in  a  blaze,  and  the  very  woods  and 
mountains  to  have  been  fired;  and  when  the  beasts  vainly 
shook  their  heads,  it  seemed  as  if  men  were  running  about 
in  every  direction.  The  troops  posted  in  the  pass,  seeing  fires 
on  the  hill-tops  and  above  them,  fancied  that  they  had  been 
surrounded,  and  left  their  position.  They  made  for  the  loftiest 
heights  as  being  their  safest  route,  for  it  was  there  that  the 
fewest  flashes  of  light  were  visible;  but  even  there  they  fell 
in  with  some  of  the  oxen  which  had  strayed  from  their  herd. 
When  they  saw  them  at  a  distance,  they  stood  thunderstruck 
at  what  seemed  to  be  the  miracle  of  oxen  breathing  fire.  As 
soon  as  it  was  seen  to  be  nothing  but  a  human  contrivance, 
they  suspected  some  deep  stratagem  and  fled  in  wilder  con- 
fusion than  ever.  They  also  fell  in  with  some  of  the  enemy's 
light-armed  troops,  but  both  sides  were  equally  afraid  in  the 
darkness  to  attack,  and  so  they  remained  until  dawn.  Mean- 
while Hannibal  had  led  his  whole  army  through  the  pass,  cut- 
ting off,  as  he  went,  some  of  his  opponents,  and  pitched  his 
camp  in  the  territory  of  Allifse.1 

Fabius  heard  the  uproar,  but  suspecting  some  stratagem, 
and  in  any  case  averse  to  fighting  by  night,  he  kept  his  men 
within  their  lines.  At  dawn  there  was  skirmishing  under  the 
ridge  of  the  hill,  where  the  Romans  cut  off  some  light  troops 
from  the  main  body,  and  would  have  easily  beaten  them,  as 
they  were  somewhat  superior  in  number,  but  for  the  appear- 
ance of  a  Spanish  cohort,  which  Hannibal  had  sent  back  to 
provide  for  the  emergency.  The  Spaniards  were  more  used  to 
hills;  what  with  their  nimble  frames  and  suitable  arms,  they 
were  lighter  and  so  better  able  than  the  Romans  to  fight 
among  crags  and  rocks,  and  they  easily  baffled  in  such  en- 
counters their  lowland  foe,  with  his  heavy  armour  and  sta- 
tionary tactics.  After  a  conflict  that  was  anything  but  even, 
they  parted,  the  Spaniards  almost  all  unhurt,  the  Romans  with 
considerable  loss,  and  so  made  each  for  their  camp. 

Fabius  also  moved  his  camp,  and  traversing  the  pass,  oc- 
cupied a  strong  and  elevated  position  above  Allifae.  Upon 
this  Hannibal  made  a  feint  as  if  he  intended  to  advance  on 
Rome  through  Samnium,  and  turned  back,  ravaging  as  he 
went,  to  the  Pelignian  country.2  Fabius  marched  along  the 
heights,  keeping  between  the  enemy's  army  and  the  capital, 
neither  avoiding  nor  attacking  him.  Leaving  the  Peligni, 
Hannibal  altered  his  route  and  fell  back  into  Apulia  to  Gere- 

1  North  of  Beneventum  in  Samnium. — D.  O. 

*  Under  the  east  slope  of  the  Apennines,  between  Lake  Fucino  and  the 
Adriatic. — D.  O. 


LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  C.  21? 

onium,1  a  town  which  its  inhabitants  had  deserted  in  alarm 
at  the  fall  of  a  great  part  of  their  walls.  The  dictator  fortified 
a  camp  in  the  district  of  Larinum.  From  this  place  he  was 
summoned  to  Rome  on  religious  business.  By  advice,  and 
even  by  entreaties,  as  well  as  by  his  actual  authority,  he  urged 
the  master  of  the  horse  to  trust  to  prudence  rather  than  to 
fortune,  and  to  take  himself  rather  than  a  Sempronius  or  a 
Flaminius  as  his  model  of  a  general.  "  He  must  not  fancy," 
he  said,  "  that  nothing  had  been  achieved  when  a  summer 
had  been  nearly  spent  in  baffling  the  enemy;  the  physician 
often  accomplished  more  by  doing  nothing  than  by  movement 
and  action.  It  was  no  small  matter  that  they  had  ceased  to 
be  vanquished  by  an  enemy  who  had  vanquished  them  so 
often,  and  had  begun  to  breathe  again  after  incessant  dis- 
asters." After  impressing  these  counsels,  but  all  to  no  pur- 
pose, on  the  master  of  the  horse,  he  set  out  for  Rome. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  summer  in  which  all  this  happened 
hostilities  commenced  in  Spain  both  by  land  and  sea.  Has- 
drubal  added  ten  ships  to  the  fleet  which  he  had  received  from 
his  brother  ready  equipped  for  action.  He  gave  Himilco 
a  squadron  of  forty  ships,  and  then,  starting  from  New  Car- 
thage, he  advanced  with  his  ships  close  to  land  and  his  army 
on  the  shore,. prepared  to  give  battle  to  the  enemy  in  what- 
ever form  he  might  encounter  him.  At  first  Cn.  Scipio,  on 
hearing  that  the  enemy  had  moved  out  of  his  winter  quarters, 
had  the  same  intention.  But  second  thoughts  made  him 
shrink  from  a  battle  on  land,  so  great  was  the  fame  of  the 
enemy's  new  auxiliaries;  and  embarking  some  of  his  picked 
troops  he  went  to  meet  the  enemy  with  a  squadron  of  five- 
and-thirty  ships.  On  the  day  after  leaving  Tarraco  he  reached 
an  anchorage  ten  miles  distant  from  the  mouth  of  the  Ebro. 
He  had  sent  in  advance  two  Massilian  vessels  to  reconnoitre. 
These  brought  back  news  that  the  fleet  of  the  Carthaginians 
was  at  anchor  in  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  their  camp  pitched 
on  the  banks. 

Scipio  weighed  anchor  and  advanced  against  the  enemy, 
hoping  to  take  him  unaware  and  unprepared,  and  to  crush  him 
in  the  panic  of  a  general  attack.  There  are  many  towers  in 
Spain  built  on  high  ground,  which  they  use  both  as  watch- 
towers  and  as  defences  against  robbers.  From  one  of  these 
the  hostile  fleet  was  first  descried,  and  the  signal  given  to 
Hasdrubal.  Thus  it  was  on  land  and  in  the  camp  that  the 
alarm  first  arose,  not  by  the  sea  or  among  the  ships,  where 
no  one  could  yet  hear  the  dash  of  the  oar,  or  any  other  sound 

1  On  the  border  of  Samnium  and  Picinum. — D.  O. 


B.C.  217]  NAVAL   VICTORY   IN   SPAIN  313 

of  the  kind,  and  the  projecting  cliffs  did  not  allow  the  fleet  to 
be  seen.  Of  a  sudden  horseman  after  horseman  despatched 
by  Hasdrubal  ordered  the  men,  who  were  wandering  about 
the  shore  or  sleeping  in  their  tents,  thinking  of  anything 
rather  than  of  the  enemy  and  of  a  battle  to  be  fought  that  very 
day,  to  instantly  man  their  ships  and  arm  themselves;  the 
Roman  fleet,  it  was  said,  was  close  to  the  harbour.  Troopers 
were  sent  hither  and  thither  with  these  orders.  Soon  Has- 
drubal himself  came  up  with  his  whole  army.  All  was  uproar 
and  confusion;  rowers  and  sailors  rushed  together  into  the 
ships,  which  seemed  to  be  flying  from  the  shore  rather  than 
going  into  battle.  Before  all  were  well  on  board,  some  unfas- 
tened their  hawsers  and  drifted  toward  their  anchors ; 1  others, 
to  have  nothing  to  check  them,  cut  the  anchor  ropes.  Every- 
thing was  done  with  excessive  haste  and  hurry;  the  prepara- 
tions of  the  soldiers  hindered  the  sailors  in  their  work;  the 
panic  of  the  sailors  prevented  the  soldiers  from  arming  them- 
selves or  preparing  for  battle.  By  this  time  the  Romans  were 
more  than  approaching;  they  were  bringing  their  ships 
straight  to  the  attack.  The  Carthaginians  were  confounded 
quite  as  much  by  their  own  disorder  as  by  the  assault  of  the 
enemy;  after  essaying  to  fight,  rather  than  fighting,  they 
turned  their  ships  to  fly;  they  could  not,  of  course,  get  into 
the  mouth  of  the  river  in  their  rear,  with  so  widely  extended 
a  line,  and  so  many  crowding  in  together.  Accordingly,  they 
drove  their  ships  ashore  in  every  direction,  and  then,  plung- 
ing into  the  shallows  or  jumping  on  to  dry  land,  armed  or 
unarmed,  they  made  their  escape  to  the  ranks  of  friendly 
troops  drawn  up  along  the  shore.  However,  in  the  first  onset 
two  Carthaginian  ships  were  taken  and  four  sunk. 

The  Romans,  though  the  enemy  was  master  on  shore,  and 
though  they  saw  the  hostile  lines  extended  along  the  coast, 
pursued  without  hesitation  the  routed  fleet.  To  the  stern  of 
every  ship  which  had  not  shattered  its  bows  on  the  shore  or 
wedged  its  keel  in  the  sand  they  fastened  ropes,  and  so  dragged 
them  out  to  sea.  Out  of  the  forty  they  captured  twenty-five. 

However,  the  best  part  of  their  victory  was  not  this,  but 
that  by  one  slight  affair  they  became  masters  of  all  the  sea 
that  washes  that  coast.  After  this  the  fleet  sailed  to  Onusa 
and  there  they  made  a  descent.  They  stormed  and  sacked 
the  city,  and  then  made  for  New  Carthage,  ravaged  all  the 
country  round  it,  and  even  set  fire  to  the  dwellings  that  ad- 
joined the  walls  and  the  gates.  From  Carthage  the  fleet  went 

1  The  sterns  of  ships  in  port  were  fastened  by  hawsers  to  the  shore. 
Their  prows  pointing  seaward  were  anchored  in  that  position. — D,  Q. 


314  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  217 

laden  with  booty  to  Longuntica,  where  there  was  a  vast  quan- 
tity of  esparto  grass,1  which  Hasdrubal  had  collected  for  the 
use  of  his  fleet.  They  removed  as  much  as  they  wanted  and 
set  fire  to  the  rest.  Nor  did  they  only  cruise  along  the  main- 
land; they  even  crossed  to  the  island  of  Ebusus.2  Here  for 
two  days  they  assaulted  with  all  their  might,  but  in  vain,  the 
capital  town  of  the  island.  Finding  that  they  were  wasting 
time  on  what  they  could  not  hope  to  accomplish,  they  took 
to  plundering  the  country,  sacked  and  burned  several  villages, 
and  got  back  to  their  ships  with  more  plunder  than  they  had 
collected  from  the  mainland.  Here  envoys  from  the  Balearic 
Islands  came  to  Scipio  to  ask  for  peace.  From  this  point  the 
fleet  turned  back,  and  they  returned  to  the  eastern  side  of  the 
province,  whither  assembled  envoys  from  all  the  tribes  near 
the  Ebro  and  from  many  that  dwelt  in  remotest  Spain.  The 
tribes  who  were  really  brought  under  the  sway  of  Rome  and 
gave  hostages  were  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty.  The 
Romans  now  felt  fairly  confident  of  the  power  of  their  army 
and  marched  as  far  as  the  pass  of  Castulo.3  Hasdrubal  re- 
tired to  Lusitania,4  where  he  was  nearer  to  the  Atlantic. 

After  this  it  seemed  likely  that  the  rest  of  the  summer  would 
pass  quietly,  and  so  it  would  have  as  far  as  the  Carthaginians 
were  concerned.  But  the  Spanish  temper  is  always  restless 
and  eager  for  change,  and,  besides  this,  Mandonius  and  In- 
dibilis,  formerly  prince  of  the  Ilergetes,  as  soon  as  the  Romans 
had  retired  from  the  pass  to  the  coast,  called  their  tribesmen 
to  arms  and  came  intent  on  plunder  into  the  peaceful  territory 
of  Rome's  allies.  Scipio  sent  against  them  some  light-armed 
auxiliaries  under  the  command  of  a  military  tribune,  who 
routed  them — they  were  but  an  undisciplined  rabble — after  a 
slight  engagement,  killing  some,  capturing  others,  and  dis- 
arming many  of  the  rest.  The  outbreak,  however,  induced 
Hasdrubal  to  stay  his  march  toward  the  Atlantic  coast,  and 
return  to  the  west  barik  of  the  Ebro,  where  he  might  defend 
his  allies.  The  Carthaginian  camp  was  pitched  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Ilergavonia;  that  of  the  Romans  at  Nova  Classis, 
when  fresh  news  changed  all  at  once  the  seat  of  war.  The 
Celtiberi,  who  were  the  leading  tribe  of  their  part  of  Spain, 
had  sent  ambassadors  and  given  hostages  to  the  Romans,  and 
now  at  the  bidding  of  an  envoy  from  Scipio,  they  took  up 
arms  and  invaded  with  a  powerful  army  the  province  of  New 
Carthage.  They  took  three  towns  by  storm ;  and  then  fought 

1  Used  like  hemp.— D.  O. 

*  The  nearest  of  the  Balearic  Islands. — D.  O. 

1  On  the  Guadalquiver,  about  fifty  miles  above  Cordova. — D.  O. 

4  Approximately  Portugal. — D.  O. 


B.  c.  2i;l  THE   CRAFTINESS  OF  ABELUX  315 

two  brilliantly  successful  battles  with  Hasdrubal  himself,  kill- 
ing fifteen  thousand  of  the  enemy  and  capturing  four  thou- 
sand, together  with  many  standards. 

This  was  the  state  of  affairs  in  Spain  when  Publius  Scipio 
came  into  the  province.  The  senate  had  prolonged  his  com- 
mand after  the  end  of  his  consulship,  and  sent  him  with  thirty 
ships  of  war,  eight  thousand  soldiers,  and  a  great  supply  of 
provisions.  The  fleet  with  its  huge  array  of  transports  was 
descried  at  a  great  distance,  and  excited  the  liveliest  joy  among 
citizens  and  allies  when  it  ended  its  voyage  in  the  harbour  of 
Tarraco.  Scipio  landed  his  troops  there  and  marched  to  join 
his  brother.  Thenceforward  the  two  carried  on  the  campaign 
with  one  heart  and  purpose.  As  the  Carthaginians  were  oc- 
cupied with  the  Celtiberi,  they  did  not  hesitate  to  cross  the 
Ebro,  and  not  seeing  an  enemy,  continued  to  advance  on 
Saguntum,  to  which  place  it  was  reported  that  the  hostages 
from  the  whole  of  Spain  had  been  transferred  by  Hannibal, 
and  were  there  kept  in  the  citadel  by  but  a  small  guard.  It 
was  only  this  pledge  that  stayed  the  universal  inclination  of 
the  Spanish  tribes  toward  alliance  with  Rome.  They  feared 
lest  the  guilt  of  their  defection  should  be  expiated  by  the  blood 
of  their  children. 

From  this  difficulty  Spain  was  freed  by  the  policy,  inglori- 
ous rather  than  honourable,  of  one  man.  Abelux  was  a  noble 
Spaniard  at  Saguntum.  Once  he  had  been  loyal  to  Carthage; 
but  now — and  such  characters  are  common  among  barbarians 
— with  a  change  of  fortune  he  had  changed  his  allegiance. 
Feeling  that  a  deserter  who  went  over  to  the  enemy  with 
nothing  valuable  to  betray,  brought  nothing  but  his  one 
worthless  and  disreputable  person,  he  aimed  at  being  as  profit- 
able as  possible  to  his  new  allies.  After  anxiously  consider- 
ing everything  that  fortune  could  possibly  put  within  his  reach, 
he  turned  his  thoughts  by  preference  to  delivering  up  the  host- 
ages, the  one  thing,  he  knew,  which  would  win  for  Rome  the 
friendship  of  the  Spanish  chiefs.  Knowing,  however,  that 
the  keeper  of  the  hostages  would  do  nothing  but  at  the  bid- 
ding of  Bostar  the  governor,  he  brought  his  arts  to  bear  on 
Bostar  himself.  Bostar  had  established  a  camp  outside  the 
town,  quite  on  the  shore,  to  close  against  the  Romans  any 
approach  on  that  side.  Here  Abelux  took  him  aside,  and  ex- 
plained to  him,  as  he  might  to  a  stranger,  the  aspect  of  affairs. 
"  Hitherto,"  he  said,  "  fear  had  held  the  inclinations  of  the 
Spaniards  in  check,  because  the  Romans  have  been  far  away; 
now  the  Roman  camps  have  been  advanced  to  the  west  of  the 
Ebro  and  afford  safe  shelter  and  refuge  to  all  who  desire  a 


316  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [8.0.217 

change.  The  men  who  are  no  longer  ruled  by  fear,  you  must 
bind  by  kindness  and  favours." 

Bostar  was  astonished,  and  wished  to  know  what  this  un- 
expected and  all-important  concession  could  be.  "  Send  back," 
said  Abelux,  "  the  hostages  to  their  states.  This  will  be  agree- 
able to  the  parents  personally,  who  have  great  weight  in 
their  own  states,  and  agreeable  to  the  tribes  generally.  Every 
one  likes  to  be  treated  with  confidence;  to  trust  a  man's  loy- 
alty often  binds  that  loyalty  the  faster.  I  claim  for  myself  the 
office  of  restoring  the  hostages  to  their  homes;  I  would  ex- 
pend all  possible  pains  to  carry  out  my  plan  and  add  to  an  act 
that  is  graceful  in  itself  all  the  grace  that  I  can." 

Abelux  satisfied  Bostar,  who  had  scarcely  the  average 
shrewdness  of  a  Carthaginian,  and  then  made  his  way  secretly 
by  night  to  the  Roman  outposts,  where  he  met  some  Spanish 
auxiliaries,  who  conducted  him  to  Scipio.  To  him  he  ex- 
plained his  proposal,  gave  and  received  a  promise  of  friend- 
ship, arranged  a  time  and  place  for  handing  over  the  hostages, 
and  so  returned  to  Saguntum.  The  next  day  he  spent  with 
Bostar  in  receiving  instructions  for  the  business  in  hand. 
From  the  governor  he  went  to  those  who  had  the  custody 
of  the  boys,  and  set  out  at  the  exact  hour  on  which  he  had 
agreed  with  the  enemy,  having  arranged  to  travel  by  night, 
for  the  purpose,  he  said,  of  eluding  their  watch.  Thus  he 
led  the  party,  unknowingly,  as  it  seemed,  into  a  trap  which 
his  own  craft  had  prepared.  They  were  conducted  into  the 
Roman  camp,  and  the  whole  business  of  restoring  the  hostages 
to  their  friends,  as  had  been  arranged  with  Bostar,  was  car- 
ried out  in  exactly  the  same  way  as  if  the  thing  were  being 
done  in  the  name  of  Carthage.  Yet  though  the  favour  was  the 
same,  Rome  earned  considerably  more  gratitude  than  Car- 
thage would  have  done.  Carthage  they  had  found  tyrannical 
and  haughty  in  the  day  of  prosperity,  and  they  might  well 
believe  that  it  was  disaster  and  fear  that  had  softened  her; 
Rome,  a  stranger  before,  on  her  very  first  introduction  to 
them  began  with  an  act  of  kindness  and  generosity,  and  the 
sagacious  Abelux  seemed  to  have  had  good  reason  for  chang- 
ing his  friends.  All  now  began  with  surprising  unanimity 
to  meditate  revolt;  and  an  insurrection  would  have  broken 
out  at  once  but  for  the  interruption  of  winter,  which  compelled 
both  Romans  and  Carthaginians  to  seek  shelter. 

So  much  for  what  happened  in  Spain  in  the  second  sum- 
mer of  the  Punic  war.  In  Italy  Fabius's  wise  policy  of  delay 
had  stayed  for  a  while  Rome's  disasters.  It  was  a  policy  that 
gave  Hannibal  no  little  anxiety,  seeing,  as  he  did,  that  at 


B.C.  2i;]         CONTEMPT  FOR  FABIUS'S  POLICY  317 

length  the  Romans  had  chosen  to  direct  their  arms  a  man 
who  fought  on  system,  not  by  chance;  but  among  his  own 
countrymen,  soldiers  as  well  as  civilians,  it  was  held  in  con- 
tempt, certainly  after  the  master  of  the  horse  had  in  his  ab- 
sence rashly  ventured  a  battle  with  a  result  which  it  would  be 
more  correct  to  call  fortunate  than  successful.  Two  circum- 
stances increased  the  dictator's  unpopularity.  One  was  due 
to  the  falsehood  and  craft  of  Hannibal.  Deserters  had  pointed 
out  to  him  the  dictator's  estate,  and  he  had  given  orders  that, 
while  everything  round  it  was  levelled  to  the  ground,  it  should 
be  kept  safe  from  fire  and  sword  and  all  hostile  violence,  hop- 
ing that  this  forbearance  might  be  thought  the  consideration 
for  some  secret  agreement.  The  other  was  the  result  of  the 
dictator's  own  action — action  possibly  doubtful  for  a  time,  as 
he  had  not  waited  for  the  senate's  sanction,  but  finally  beyond 
all  question  turning  out  very  much  to  his  credit.  In  the  ex- 
change of  prisoners  it  had  been  agreed  between  the  two  gen- 
erals, following  the  precedent  of  the  first  Punic  war,  that  the 
side  which  had  more  to  receive  than  to  hand  over  should 
make  good  as  much  as  two  pounds  and  a  half  of  silver  for 
every  man.  The  Romans  had  received  back  two  hundred  and 
forty-seven  more  prisoners  than  the  Carthaginians;  finding 
that  after  frequent  debate  on  the  matter  there  was  delay  in 
voting  the  money  due  for  these  men,  because  he  had  not  con- 
sulted the  senate,  he  sent  his  son  Quintus  to  Rome,  sold  the 
estate  which  the  enemy  had  spared,  and  discharged  the  public 
obligation  at  his  own  cost. 

Hannibal  was  in  a  stationary  camp  before  the  walls  of 
Gereonium,  a  city  which  he  had  taken  and  burned,  but  in  which 
he  had  left  a  few  houses  to  serve  as  barns.  He  sent  out  two 
divisions  of  his  army  to  collect  corn,  and  remained  himself 
with  a  third  division  in  readiness  to  move,  thus  at  once  pro- 
tecting his  camp  and  watching  against  any  attack  that  might 
be  made  on  his  foraging  parties. 

At  this  time  the  Roman  army  was  in  the  country  of  Lari- 
num,1  Minucius,  master  of  the  horse,  being  in  command,  the 
dictator,  as  I  have  already  said,  having  started  for  Rome.  The 
camp,  pitched  hitherto  on  the  hills,  on  high  and  secure  ground, 
was  now  brought  down  to  the  plain,  and  more  energetic 
measures,  suited  to  the  temper  of  the  new  general,  were  dis- 
cussed for  attacking  the  scattered  foragers  or  the  enemy's 
lines,  left  as  they  were  with  a  slender  garrison.  Hannibal 
did  not  fail  to  perceive  that  a  change  of  plans  had  followed  a 
change  of  generals,  and  that  the  foe  was  likely  to  show  more 

1  Between  Gereonium  arid  the  Adriatic. — D.  O. 


LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  217 

dash  than  caution.  Very  strangely,  he  now,  though  the  enemy 
was  so  near,  sent  out  a  third  of  his  troops  to  forage,  and  kept 
two  thirds  in  his  camp.  Next  he  moved  the  camp  itself  nearer 
to  the  Romans,  about  two  miles  away  from  Gereonium,  on  to 
some  rising  ground  within  their  sight,  to  make  it  plain  to  them 
that  he  was  bent  on  protecting  his  foragers,  should  an  attack 
be  threatened.  From  this  point  he  saw  some  high  ground 
yet  nearer  and  actually  overhanging  the  Roman  camp.  Should 
he  move  on  it  in  the  broad  light  of  day,  it  was  certain  that  the 
enemy,  having  a  shorter  space  to  traverse,  would  get  the  start 
of  him;  he  sent  therefore  some  Numidians  who  occupied  it 
under  cover  of  darkness. 

Next  day  the  Romans,  despising  the  scanty  numbers  that 
held  the  place,  attacked  them,  drove  them  out,  and  moved 
thither  their  own  camp.  There  was  now  but  a  very  small 
space  between  one  rampart  and  the  other,  and  this  was  almost 
wholly  occupied  by  Roman  troops.  At  the  same  time  some 
cavalry  and  light-armed  soldiers  darted  out  against  the  for- 
agers from  the  side  that  was  farthest  from  Hannibal's  camp 
and  made  a  great  rout  and  slaughter  in  their  scattered  ranks. 
And  Hannibal  did  not  venture  to  fight  a  battle,  for  a  great 
part  of  his  army  was  away,  and  his  force  was  so  scanty  that 
he  could  scarcely  protect  his  camp  should  it  be  attacked.  He 
now  began  to  adopt  the  tactics  of  Fabius,  to  sit  still  and  to 
delay,  and  retired  his  men  to  his  first  camp  outside  Gere- 
onium. Some  authorities  have  it  that  a  regular  battle  was 
fought;  that  at  the  first  encounter  the  Carthaginians  were 
driven  in  confusion  to  their  camp;  that  the  Romans  in  their 
turn  were  panic-stricken  by  a  sudden  sally,  and  that  the  day 
was  finally  won  by  the  arrival  of  a  Samnite  officer,  Numerius 
Decimius.  Numerius,  whose  birth  and  wealth  made  him  the 
first  man  not  only  in  Bovianum,  his  native  place,  but  in  the 
whole  of  Samnium,  was  marching  eight  thousand  infantry 
and  five  hundred  cavalry  into  the  camp  by  order  of  the  dic- 
tator; he  could  now  be  seen  by  Hannibal  in  his  rear,  and  pre- 
sented the  appearance  of  re-enforcements  coming  from  Rome 
with  Fabius.  Hannibal,  fearing  some  stratagem,  drew  back 
his  troops ;  the  Romans  pursued,  and,  with  the  help  of  the 
Samnites,  stormed  that  same  day  two  redoubts.  Of  the  enemy 
there  fell  six  thousand,  of  the  Romans  five  thousand  men ;  but 
though  the  loss  on  both  sides  was  so  nearly  equal,  a  foolish 
report  of  a  splendid  victory  was  sent  to  Rome  with  a  despatch 
from  the  master  of  the  horse  that  was  yet  more  foolish. 

These  matters  were  often  debated  both  in  the  senate  and 
in  the  assembly  of  the  people.  When,  amid  the  universal  joy, 


B.  C.  217]  THE  COMMAND  DIVIDED  319 

the  dictator  alone  would  believe  neither  report  nor  despatch, 
and  declared  that,  allowing  all  to  be  true,  he  was  more  afraid 
of  successes  than  reverses,  then  Marcus  Metilius,  tribune  of 
the  people,  spoke  out.  "  This,"  he  said,  "  really  can  not  be 
endured,  that  the  dictator  should  not  only  have  set  himself, 
when  he  was  with  the  army,  against  any  attempt  at  success, 
but  should  also,  when  he  is  not  with  it,  set  himself  against 
a  success  actually  achieved;  that,  in  his  tedious  campaigning, 
he  should  purposely  waste  time  to  keep  himself  longer  in 
office  and  to  enjoy  a  monopoly  of  power  both  at  Rome  and  in 
the  field.  One  consul  has  fallen  in  battle,  the  other  has  been 
banished  far  away  from  Italy  under  the  pretence  that  he  is  to 
pursue  the  Carthaginian  fleet.  The  two  praetors  are  employed 
in  Sicily  and  Sardinia,  though  there  is  now  no  need  for  a 
praetor  in  either  province.  Marcus  Minucius,  the  master  of 
the  horse,  is  almost  kept  in  prison  that  he  may  not  even  see 
the  enemy  or  do  any  of  a  soldier's  business.  Good  heavens! 
it  is  not  only  Samnium,  which  indeed  we  have  given  up  to 
Carthage  just  as  much  as  if  it  were  Spain  beyond  the  Ebro, 
but  Campania  and  the  country  round  Cales  and  Falerii  that 
have  been  ravaged,  while  the  dictator  sits  still  at  Casilinum 
and  employs  the  legions  of  the  Roman  people  in  protecting 
his  own  estate.  An  army  eager  to  fight  and  a  master  of  the 
horse  have  been  almost  shut  up  within  their  intrenchments ; 
their  arms  have  been  taken  from  them,  just  as  if  they  had  been 
prisoners  from  the  enemy.  At  length,  when  the  dictator  left 
them,  they  marched  out  of  their  lines,  like  men  released  from 
a  siege,  and  routed  and  put  to  flight  the  enemy.  For  these 
reasons  were  the  old  spirit  present  to  the  commons  of  Rome, 
I  should  have  boldly  proposed  that  Quintus  Fabius  be  de- 
posed. As  it  is,  I  shall  offer  a  strictly  moderate  resolution, 
equalizing  the  power  of  the  dictator  and  the  master  of  the 
horse.  Even  if  this  is  carried,  Fabius  must  not  join  the  army 
till  he  has  appointed  a  consul  in  the  room  of  Caius  Flaminius." 
The  dictator  abstained  from  all  public  speeches  on  behalf 
of  a  most  unpopular  policy.  Even  in  the  senate  he  was  heard 
with  disfavour  when  he  extolled  the  skill  of  Hannibal,  and 
maintained  that  the  disasters  of  the  last  two  years  had  been  in- 
curred through  the  rashness  and  inexperience  of  our  generals, 
and  that  the  master  of  the  horse  would  have  to  answer  to  him 
for  having  fought  in  disobedience  to  his  commands.  "  If,"  he 
said,  "  I  am  supreme  in  command  and  counsel,  I  will  soon 
make  men  know  that,  with  a  good  general,  fortune  is  of  little 
account,  that  good  sense  and  sound  judgment  carry  the  day, 
and  that  it  is  far  more  glorious  to  have  kept  an  army  safe  at  a 


LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  217 

critical  moment  and  without  disgrace  than  to  have  slain  many 
thousands  of  the  enemy."  But  he  urged  these  arguments  to 
no  purpose;  and  so,  after  appointing  Marcus  Atilius  Regulus 
consul,  as  he  did  not  wish  to  stay  himself  and  wrangle  about 
claims  to  power,  he  left  for  the  army  by  night. 

There  was  an  assembly  of  the  commons  at  dawn.  Silent 
ill-feeling  toward  the  dictator  and  a  liking  for  the  master  of 
the  horse  were  strong  in  the  public  mind,  but  men  hardly 
dared  to  come  forward  and  advocate  what  was  really  popu- 
lar.1 Thus  the  motion,  though  it  found  abundant  favour,  still 
wanted  supporters.  One  man  alone  was  found  to  argue  for 
the  bill,  Caius  Terentius  Varro,  praetor  of  the  year  before,  a 
man  of  birth  not  only  humble  but  positively  mean.  It  was 
said  that  his  father  had  been  a  butcher,  who  sold  his  own 
goods  by  retail,  and  who  had  employed  this  very  son  in  the 
menial  employments  of  his  trade. 

Growing  to  manhood,  he  found  in  the  money  left  by  his 
father  the  hope  of  rising  from  these  sordid  gains  to  a  nobler 
position ;  the  advocate's  gown  suited  his  taste ;  noisy  declama- 
tions and  causes  for  ignoble  clients  brought  him  first  to  notori- 
ety and  afterward  to  public  office.  Becoming  quaestor,  once 
plebeian  and  once  curule  aedile,  and  at  last  praetor,  he  was  now 
even  raising  his  aspirations  to  the  consulship.  With  no  small 
cunning  he  sought  to  win  the  people's  favour  out  of  the  dis- 
like felt  for  the  dictator,  and  secured  for  himself  all  the  popu- 
larity of  the  resolution. 

All  men,  whether  at  Rome  or  in  the  army,  whether  friends 
or  foes,  took  the  bill  as  an  intentional  insult  to  the  dictator. 
Not  so  the  dictator  himself.  In  the  same  dignified  spirit  in 
which  he  had  borne  the  charges  made  against  him  before  the 
populace,  he  now  bore  the  wrong  which  the  commons  inflicted 
in  their  rage.  The  despatch  from  the  senate  announcing  the 
equalization  of  military  authority  reached  him  on  his  way. 
Confident  that  the  commander's  skill  could  not  be  equalized 
along  with  the  right  to  command,  he  returned  to  the  army 
with  a  soul  that  neither  his  fellow-citizens  nor  the  enemy  could 
subdue. 

As  for  Minucius,  success  and  popularity  had  already  made 
him  scarcely  endurable,  and  now  he  began  to  boast  without 
restraint  or  modesty  that  he  had  vanquished  Fabius  quite  as 
much  as  he  had  vanquished  Hannibal.  "  This  marvellous 
general  discovered  in  our  trouble  to  be  a  match  for  Hannibal, 
this  supreme  commander,  this  dictator  has  been  put  on  a  level 
with  me,  his  inferior,  his  master  of  the  horse  made  such  by 

1  As  being  entirely  unprecedented. — D.  O. 


B.C.  217]    HANNIBAL  SETS  A  TRAP  FOR  MINUCIUS       321 

the  will  of  the  people,  though  there  is  no  precedent  for  it  in 
our  history,  and  though  in  Rome  the  master  of  the  horse  has 
been  wont  to  tremble  and  quake  at  the  axes  and  rods  of  the 
dictator.  So  brilliantly  conspicuous  have  been  my  good  for- 
tune and  valour.  It  is  for  me  therefore  to  follow  out  my 
destiny,  if  the  dictator  persists  in  a  delay  and  an/ inaction  on 
which  gods  and  men  alike  have  pronounced  sentence." 

Accordingly,  on  the  first  day  that  he  met  Quintus  Fabius, 
he  declared  that  the  first  thing  to  be  settled  was  how  they  were 
to  exercise  the  divided  command.  His  own  opinion  was  that 
the  supreme  authority  and  command  should  rest  with  them  on 
alternate  days,  or  for  some  settled  time,  if  a  longer  period 
seemed  preferable.  They  would  thus  be  a  match  for  the 
enemy  not  only  in  strategy,  but  also  in  actual  force,  should 
any  opportunity  for  action  present  itself.  This  plan  in  nowise 
approved  itself  to  Fabius.  Everything,  he  saw,  would  thus 
be  at  the  mercy  of  any  mischance  that  might  befall  his  col- 
league's rashness.  His  command  had  been  shared,  not  taken 
from  him;  he  would  never  willingly  relinquish  the  duty  of 
prudently  directing  matters,  as  far  as  might  be;  he  would 
share  the  troops  with  him  rather  than  periods  or  days  of 
command,  and  would  save  by  his  counsels  what  he  could, 
since  he  might  not  save  all.  He  had  his  way,  and  the  legions 
were  divided  between  the  two,  as  was  the  regular  practice 
with  the  consuls.  The  first  and  fourth  fell  to  Minucius,  the 
second  and  third  to  Fabius.  They  also  made  an  equal  division 
of  the  cavalry,  of  the  allies,  and  of  the  Latin  auxiliaries.  The 
master  of  the  horse  also  chose  to  have  a  separate  camp. 

Hannibal  was  now  doubly  delighted,  and  not  a  single 
movement  of  his  foe  escaped  him.  The  deserters  told  him 
much,  and  he  learned  much  from  his  own  spies.  He  would 
entrap  in  his  own  fashion  the  frank  rashness  of  Minucius, 
while  the  experienced  Fabius  had  lost  half  of  his  strength. 
There  was  some  rising  ground  between  the  camp  of  Minucius 
and  that  of  the  Carthaginians,  and  it  was  clear  that  whoever 
should  occupy  it  would  thereby  make  the  enemy's  position 
less  favourable.  It  was  not  so  much  Hannibal's  desire  to  gain 
this  without  fighting,  though  that  would  have  been  worth  the 
attempt,  as  to  find  in  it  the  occasion  of  a  battle  with  Minucius, 
who  would,  he  was  quite  sure,  sally  forth  to  oppose  him.  All 
the  ground  between  them  seemed  at  first  sight  useless  for 
purposes  of  ambush.  Not  only  had  it  no  vestige  of  wood 
about  it,  but  it  was  without  even  a  covering  of  brambles.  In 
reality,  nature  made  it  'to  conceal  an  ambush,  all  the  more 
because  no  hidden  danger  could  be  feared  in  so  bare  a  valley. 
ai 


322  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  217 

In  its  windings  were  caverns,  some  of  them  large  enough  to 
hold  two  hundred  armed  men.  Into  these  hiding-places, 
wherever  there  was  one  which  could  be  conveniently  occupied, 
he  introduced  five  thousand  infantry  and  cavalry.  Still  in  so 
exposed  a  valley  the  stratagem  might  be  discovered  by  the 
incautious  movement  of  a  single  soldier,  or  by  the  gleam  of 
arms,  and  he  therefore  sent  a  few  troops  at  early  dawn  to  oc- 
cupy the  hill  mentioned  before,  and  so  to  distract  the  atten- 
tion of  the  enemy.  To  see  them  was  to  conceive  at  once  a 
contempt  for  their  scanty  numbers.  Every  man  begged  for 
the  task  of  dislodging  the  enemy  and  occupying  the  place. 
Conspicuous  among  these  senseless  braggarts  was  the  general 
himself,  as  he  called  his  men  to  arms  and  assailed  the  enemy 
with  idle  threats.  First  he  sent  his  light  troops,  then  his  cav- 
alry in  close  array;  at  last,  seeing  that  the  enemy  were  re- 
ceiving re-enforcements,  he  advanced  with  his  legions  in  order 
of  battle. 

Hannibal,  too,  as  the  conflict  waxed  fiercer  and  his  troops 
were  hard  pressed,  sent  again  and  again  infantry  and  cavalry 
to  their  support,  till  his  line  of  battle  was  complete,  and  both 
sides  were  fighting  with  their  whole  strength.  First  of  all 
the  Roman  light-armed  troops,  attacking,  as  they  did,  from 
below  an  elevation  already  occupied,  were  repulsed  and  thrust 
back,  carrying  panic  with  them  into  the  cavalry  behind  and 
flying  till  they  reached  the  standards  of  the  legions.  It  was 
the  infantry  that  alone  stood  firm  amid  the  rout  and  seemed 
likely,  if  once  they  had  had  to  fight  a  regular  battle  in  the  face 
of  the  enemy,  to  be  quite  a  match  for  him.  The  successful 
action  of  a  few  days  before  had  given  them  abundance  of 
courage;  but  the  ambushed  troops  unexpectedly  rose  upon 
them,  charged  them  on  the  flank  and  in  the  rear,  and  spread 
such  confusion  and  panic  that  they  lost  all  heart  for  fighting 
and  all  hope  of  escape. 

Fabius  first  heard  the  cry  of  terror;  then  saw  from  afar 
the  broken  lines.  "  It  is  true,"  he  cried,  "  disaster  has  over- 
taken rashness,  but  not  sooner  than  I  feared.  They  made 
him  equal  to  Fabius,  but  he  sees  that  Hannibal  is  his  supe- 
rior both  in  courage  and  in  good  fortune.  Another  time, 
however,  will  do  for  angry  reproof  and  censure;  now  ad- 
vance the  standards  beyond  the  ramparts.  Let  us  wring  from 
the  enemy  his  victory,  from  our  countrymen  the  confession 
of  error." 

Many  had  already  fallen  and  many  were  looking  for  the 
chance  to  fly,  when  the  army  of  Fabius,  as  suddenly  as  if  it 
had  dropped  from  heaven,  appeared  to  help  them.  Before 


B.  C.  217]  FABIUS   TO   THE   RESCUE  323 

javelins  were  thrown  or  swords  crossed,  it  checked  the 
Romans  in  their  headlong  flight,  the  enemy  in  the  fierce  eager- 
ness of  their  attack.  Where  the  ranks  had  been  broken  and 
the  men  scattered  hither  and  thither,  they  hurried  from  all 
sides  to  the  unbroken  line;  larger  bodies  had  retreated  to- 
gether, these  now  wheeled  round  to  face  the  enemy  in  a  cir- 
cular formation,  sometimes  slowly  retiring,  sometimes  standing 
in  firm  and  close  array.  By  the  time  that  the  beaten  army 
and  the  unbroken  army  had  all  but  combined  into  a  single 
force  and  were  advancing  against  the  enemy,  Hannibal  gave 
the  signal  for  retreat,  thus  openly  confessing  that,  as  he  had 
conquered  Minucius,  so  he  had  himself  been  worsted  by 
Fabius. 

Returning  to  the  camp  late  on  this  day  of  checkered  for- 
tune, Minucius  assembled  his  troops.  "  Soldiers,"  he  said, 
"  I  have  often  heard  that  the  best  man  is  he  who  can  tell  us 
himself  what  is  the  right  thing;  that  next  comes  he  who  listens 
to  good  advice;  and  that  he  who  can  not  advise  himself  or 
submit  to  another,  has  the  meanest  capacity  of  all.  Since  the 
best  blessing  of  heart  and  understanding  has  been  denied  us, 
let  us  hold  fast  that  next  best  gift  which  is  between  the  two, 
and  while  we  learn  to  rule,  make  up  our  minds  to  obey  the 
wise.  Let  us  join  our  camp  to  the  camp  of  Fabius.  When 
we  have  carried  our  standards  to  his  headquarters,  and  I  have 
given  him  the  title  of  parent,  so  well  deserved  by  the  service 
which  he  has  done  us,  and  by  his  high  position,  you,  my  sol- 
diers, will  salute  as  the  authors  of  your  freedom  the  men 
whose  right  hands  and  swords  lately  saved  you.  So  this  day 
will  give  us,  if  nothing  else,  yet  at  least  the  credit  of  having 
grateful  hearts." 

The  signal  was  given,  and  proclamation  made  to  collect 
the  camp  equipage.  Then  they  started  and  marched  in  regu- 
lar array  to  the  dictator's  camp,  much  to  his  wonder  and  that 
of  those  who  stood  round  him.  When  the  standards  were  set 
up  before  the  hustings,  the  master  of  the  horse  stepped  for- 
ward and  called  Fabius  by  the  name  of  "  father,"  while  the 
whole  array  saluted  as  "  authors  of  their  freedom  "  the  sol- 
diers as  they  stood  grouped  around  their  commander.  "  Dic- 
tator," he  said,  "  I  have  put  thee  on  a  level  with  my  parents 
by  this  name,  and  it  is  all  that  speech  can  do;  but  while  I 
owe  to  them  life  only,  to  thee  I  owe  the  safety  of  myself  and 
of  all  these.  Therefore  I  am  the  first  to  reject  and  repeal  that 
decree  which  has  been  to  me  a  burden  rather  than  an  honour, 
and  praying  that  this  act  may  be  prospered  to  thee  and  me 
and  to  these  thy  armies,  the  preserver  and  the  preserved  alike, 


324  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  217 

I  put  myself  again  under  thy  command  and  fortunes,  and  re- 
store to  thee  these  standards  and  legions.  Forgive  us,  I  pray, 
and  allow  me  to  keep  my  mastership  of  the  horse,  and  each 
of  these  his  several  rank." 

There  was  a  general  clasping  of  hands;  and  when  the  as- 
sembly was  dismissed,  the  soldiers  were  kindly  and  hospitably 
invited  by  strangers  as  well  as  friends.  Thus  a  day  which  but 
a  few  hours  before  had  been  full  of  sorrow  and  almost  of  un- 
speakable disaster  became  a  day  of  merriment.  In  Rome,  as 
soon  as  the  news  of  this  incident  arrived,  followed  and  con- 
firmed by  letters,  not  only  from  the  generals  but  from  many 
persons  in  either  army,  every  one  joined  in  extolling  Maximus 
to  the  skies.  Hannibal  and  the  Carthaginians  equally  ad- 
mired him.  They  felt  at  last  that  it  was  with  Romans  and 
in  Italy  that  they  were  fighting.  For  the  last  two  years  they 
had  so  despised  both  the  generals  and  the  soldiers  of  Rome 
that  they  could  scarcely  believe  themselves  to  be  fighting  with 
that  same  people  of  whom  they  had  heard  so  terrible  a  report 
from  their  fathers.  Hannibal,  too,  they  say,  exclaimed,  as  he 
was  returning  from  the  field,  "  At  last  the  cloud  which  has 
been  dwelling  so  long  upon  the  hills  has  burst  upon  us  in 
storm  and  rain." 

While  these  events  were  occurring  in  Italy,  the  consul 
Cneius  Servilius  Geminus,  with  a  fleet  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  ships  sailed  round  the  coasts  of  Sardinia  and  Corsica, 
received  hostages  from  both  islands,  and  then  crossed  over  to 
Africa.  Before  landing  on  the  mainland,  he  ravaged  the  island 
of  Menige,  and  received  ten  talents  of  silver  from  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Cercina,1  as  a  consideration  for  not  devastating  their 
territory  also.  He  then  passed  over  to  the  African  coast  and 
landed  his  forces.  The  soldiers  and  seamen  were  now  taken 
to  ravage  the  country,  and  dispersed  themselves  just  as  if  they 
were  plundering  an  uninhabited  island.  This  recklessness 
drew  them  into  ambuscades;  they  were  straggling,  and  the 
enemy  was  compact;  they  knew  nothing  of  the  country,  and 
the  enemy  knew  it  well :  finally  they  were  driven  back  to  their 
ships  with  heavy  loss  and  great  disgrace.  As  many  as  a  thou- 
sand men,  and  among  them  the  quaestor  Sempronius  Blaesus, 
perished.  The  fleet  then  hurriedly  leaving  a  coast  crowded 
with  foes,  sailed  to  Sicily,  and  was  handed  over  at  Lilybaeum 
to  the  praetor  Titus  Otacilius,  whose  second  in  command,  Pub- 
lius  Sura,  was  to  take  it  back  to  Rome.  The  consul  himself 
went  overland  through  Sicily,  and  crossed  the  strait  to  Italy. 
A  despatch  from  Fabius  had  summoned  him  and  his  colleague, 

1  Both  in  the  Gulf  of  Cabes.— D.  O. 


B.  C.  217]     THE   ARMIES  IN   WINTER  QUARTERS  325 

Marcus  Atilius,  that  they  might  take  his  army  off  his  hands, 
as  his  six  months'  command  was  now  nearly  at  an  end. 

Almost  all  the  annalists  relate  that  Fabius  was  dictator 
when  he  conducted  his  campaign  against  Hannibal.  Coelius 
adds  that  he  was  the  first  dictator  created  by  the  people.  But 
it  has  escaped  Coelius  and  the  other  writers  that  the  surviving 
consul,  Cneius  Servilius,  who  was  then  far  away  in  the  prov- 
ince of  Gaul,  alone  had  the  right  of  naming  a  dictator;  that  the 
country,  terror-stricken  by  disaster,  would  not  endure  the 
delay,  and  had  recourse  to  the  plan  of  creating  by  popular 
election  a  pro-dictator;  and  that  his  achievements,  the  great 
distinction  that  he  won  as  a  general,  and  an  exaggerated  ac- 
count of  his  honours  in  after  generations,  easily  led  to  the 
belief  that  he  had  been  dictator,  when  really  he  had  been  but 
pro-dictator. 

Atilius  took  command  of  the  army  of  Fabius,  and  Geminus 
Servilius  of  that  of  Minucius.  They  fortified  their  winter 
camp  in  good  time,  and  were  thoroughly  agreed  in  employing 
the  tactics  of  Fabius  for  what  was  left  of  the  autumn  cam- 
paign. Whenever  Hannibal  sallied  out  to  collect  supplies, 
they  were  ready  to  meet  him  at  this  place  and  at  that;  they 
harassed  his  march,  they  cut  off  stragglers;  but  the  hazard 
of  a  general  engagement,  which  the  enemy  sought  in  every 
possible  way  to  bring  on,  they  declined.  Hannibal  was  re- 
duced to  such  extreme  want  that  he  would  have  gone  back  to 
Gaul,  but  that  his  retreat  would  have  looked  like  a  flight,  and 
he  had  no  hope  of  supporting  his  army  in  this  country  were 
the  next  consuls  to  follow  the  same  tactics. 

When  winter  had  brought  the  war  to  a  standstill  at  Gere- 
onium,  envoys  from  Naples  came  to  Rome.  They  brought 
into  the  senate-house  forty  very  heavy  bowls  of  gold,  and 
spoke  to  the  following  effect :  "  We  know  that  the  treasury 
of  the  Roman  people  is  being  exhausted  by  the  war.  Seeing, 
then,  that  you  are  fighting  just  as  much  for  the  cities  and 
lands  of  the  allies  as  for  the  capital  and  citadel  of  Italy,  Rome, 
and  your  own  empire,  the  men  of  Naples  hold  it  right  to  give 
to  the  help  of  the  Roman  people  the  gold  which  has  been 
left  them  by  their  ancestors  alike  for  the  adornment  of  their 
temples,  or  for  a  reserve  in  case  of  need.  Had  we  thought 
that  our  own  services  were  of  any  worth,  we  should  have 
offered  them  with  the  same  readiness.  The  senate  and  people 
of  Rome  will  best  please  us  by  looking  on  all  the  possessions 
of  the  men  of  Naples  as  their  own,  and  by  deigning  to  receive 
from  them  a  gift  to  which  the  good-will  of  those  who  freely 
offer  it  rather  than  its  actual  magnitude  gives  greatness  and 


226  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  C.  216 

dignity."  The  envoys  were  thanked  for  their  munificence  and 
zeal,  and  the  lightest  of  the  bowls  was  accepted. 

About  this  time  a  Carthaginian  spy  who  had  eluded  cap- 
ture for  two  years  was  caught  in  Rome  and  dismissed  with 
his  hands  lopped  off.  Twenty-five  slaves  were  crucified  for 
having  conspired  in  the  Campus  Martius,  the  informer  being 
rewarded  with  his  liberty  and  twenty  thousand  sesterces.  An 
embassy  was  sent  to  Philip,  King  of  Macedon,  to  demand  the 
extradition  of  Demetrius  of  Pharos,  who  had  taken  refuge 
with  him  after  his  defeat;  another  to  the  Ligures  to  expostu- 
late with  them  for  helping  the  Carthaginians  with  money  and 
men,  and  also  to  observe  from  the  immediate  neighbourhood 
what  was  going  on  among  the  Boii  and  the  Insubres.  Envoys 
also  were  sent  to  King  Pineus  in  Illyria  to  demand  the  tribute, 
the  time  for  which  had  expired,  or,  if  he  wished  payment  to 
be  postponed,  to  receive  hostages.  Crushing  as  was  the  pres- 
sure of  the  war  upon  our  shoulders,  yet  nothing  in  any  coun- 
try, however  remote,  escaped  the  diligent  care  of  Rome.  Re- 
ligious scruples  also  arose  because  the  Temple  of  Concord 
which  the  praetor,  Lucius  Manlius,  had  vowed  two  years  be- 
fore in  Gaul  on  the  occasion  of  a  mutiny,  had  not  been  con- 
tracted for  up  to  that  time.  Two  commissioners,  Caius  Pupius 
and  Cseso  Quinctius  Flamininus,  were  appointed  for  the  pur- 
pose by  Marcus  ^milius,  praetor  of  the  city,  and  contracted 
for  the  building  of  the  temple  in  the  citadel.1 

This  same  praetor  also  in  obedience  to  a  resolution  of  the 
senate  sent  letters  to  the  consuls  to  the  effect  that  if  they 
thought  fit  one  of  them  should  come  to  Rome  to  hold  the  elec- 
tion for  new  consuls,  and  that  any  day  they  might  wish  should 
be  fixed  for  the  assembly.  The  consuls  replied  that  they  could 
not  without  damage  to  the  public  interests  leave  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  enemy,  and  that  therefore  the  elections  should 
be  held  by  an  interrex  in  preference  to  calling  away  either  of 
the  consuls  from  the  seat  of  war.  It  seemed  to  the  senate  more 
in  order  that  a  dictator  should  be  named  by  the  consul  for 
the  purpose  of  holding  the  election.  Lucius  Veturius  Philo 
was  so  named,  and  appointed  Manius  Pomponius  Matho  his 
master  of  the  horse.  There  was  some  legal  flaw  in  these  ap- 
pointments, and  they  were  ordered  fourteen  days  afterward 
to  abdicate  their  offices,  and  an  interregnum  was  the  result. 

The  consuls  had  their  command  prolonged  for  a  year.2 
The  senate  named  as  interrex  first  Caius  Claudius  Cento,  son 

1  Or  rather  on  the  slope  of  and  backed  up  against  the  Capitoline  Hill. 
— D.  O. 

*  As  proconsuls. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  216]  THE   WINTER   AT   ROME  327 

of  Appius  of  that  name,  and  after  him,  Publius  Cornelius  Asi- 
na.  During  the  latter's  term  of  office  the  elections  were  held, 
and  fiercely  contested  between  patricians  and  plebeians.  The 
lower  orders  were  striving  to  elevate  to  the  consulship  Caius 
Terentius  Varro,  a  man  of  their  own  class,  who  had  ingrati- 
ated himself  with  them  by  his  invectives  against  the  nobles, 
and  the  arts  which  win  popularity,  and  who,  since  the  shock 
which  he  had  given  to  the  position  and  power  of  the  dictator 
Fabius,  had  found  in  another  man's  unpopularity  a  certain  dis- 
tinction for  himself.  The  patricians  opposed  him  with  all 
their  might,  fearing  lest  men  should  find  in  such  attacks  a 
common  road  to  equality.  Quintus  Baebius  Herennius,  trib- 
une of  the  commons,  a  kinsman  of  Varro,  inveighed  not  only 
against  the  senate,  but  also  against  the  augurs,  because  they 
had  forbidden  the  dictator  to  complete  the  elections,  seeking 
at  their  expense  that  which  might  win  favour  for  his  own 
candidate.  "  It  is  the  nobles,"  he  cried,  "  eager  for  war  as 
they  have  long  been,  who  brought  Hannibal  into  Italy;  it  is 
they  who,  when  the  struggle  might  be  ended,  wickedly  pro- 
longed the  war.  When  it  had  been  proved  by  the  success  of 
Minucius  during  the  absence  of  Fabius  that  four  legions  com- 
bined could  fight  with  advantage,  two  legions  were  sent  for 
the  enemy  to  slaughter,  and  then,  rescued  from  slaughter,  to 
gain  the  titles  of  father  and  protector  for  the  man  who  kept  the 
Romans  from  victory  before  he  kept  them  from  defeat.  After 
this  the  consuls  followed  the  tactics  of  Fabius  and  protracted 
the  war  which  they  might  have  finished.  This  is  the  compact 
which  all  the  nobles  have  made  among  themselves;  we  shall 
not  see  the  end  of  the  war  till  we  raise  to  the  consulship  a  real 
plebeian,  that  is,  a  man  from  the  ranks ;  for  our  plebeian  no- 
bility 1  have  now  been  initiated  into  the  patrician  religious 
ritual,  and  have  learned  to  despise  the  commons  ever  since  they 
ceased  to  be  despised  by  the  patricians.  Who  does  not  see 
that  their  aim  and  object  have  been  to  bring  about  an  inter- 
regnum, that  the  elections  may  be  controlled  by  the  patri- 
cians ?  2  This  was  what  the  consuls  had  in  view  in  lingering 
with  the  army,  this  was  the  reason  why,  when  they  had  re- 
luctantly named  a  dictator  to  conduct  the  elections,  they  had 
fought  hard  to  get  this  dictator's  appointment  pronounced 
irregular  by  the  augurs.  They  have  their  interregnum,  then ; 
but  one  consulship  certainly  belongs  to  the  commons  of 
Rome ; s  the  people  would  use  it  freely  and  give  it  to  the  man 

1  The  conscripti  who  had  been  added  to  the  senate. — D.  O. 
*  Interreges  were  always  patricians. — D.  O. 
'  By  the  Licinian  law,  passed  367  B.  c, — D,  O, 


328  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  C.  216 

who  would  prefer  winning  an  early  victory  to  holding  a  long 
command." 

With  such  oratory  the  commons  were  wrought  to  fury. 
Three  patricians  were  candidates,  Publius  Cornelius  Merenda, 
Lucius  Manlius  Vulso,  Marcus  ^milius  Lepidus,  and  two 
men  of  ennobled  plebeian  families,  Caius  Atilius  Serranus,  and 
Quintus  ^lius  Paetus,  one  of  whom  was  pontiff  and  the  other 
augur,  but  the  single  consul  elected1  was  Caius  Terentius,  who 
had  therefore  to  preside  over  the  election  of  a  colleague.  By 
this  time  the  nobles  had  found  that  their  candidates  were  not 
strong  enough.  They  induced  Lucius  ^milius  Paulus,  after 
a  long  and  earnest  resistance,  to  stand.  He  had  been  consul 
with  Marcus  Livius,  and  had  escaped  half  ruined  from  the  con- 
demnation which  had  overtaken  his  colleague  and  himself, 
and  he  was  no  friend  to  the  commons.  On  the  next  election 
day,  all  Varro's  opponents  retiring,  ^milius  was  appointed 
rather  as  a  rival  to  thwart  him  than  as  a  colleague.  The  elec- 
tion of  praetors  was  next  held ;  Manius  Pomponius  Matho  and 
Publius  Furius  Philus  were  appointed.  To  Philus  was  al- 
lotted the  jurisdiction  of  praetor  of  the  city;  to  Pomponius  the 
jurisdiction  over  causes  between  citizens  and  aliens.  Two 
more  praetors  were  appointed,  Marcus  Claudius  Marcellus  for 
Sicily,  and  Lucius  Postumius  Albinus  for  Gaul.  All  these 
magistrates  were  appointed  in  their  absence.  Not  one,  except 
the  consul  Terentius,  had  any  office  committed  to  him  which 
he  had  not  held  before,  and  not  a  few  gallant  and  ener- 
getic men  were  passed  over,  because  at  such  a  crisis  it  was 
thought  that  no  one  should  be  trusted  with  an  office  to  which 
he  was  new. 

The  armies  also  were  increased.  But  as  to  what  additional 
forces  of  infantry  and  cavalry  were  raised,  my  authorities  vary 
so  much,  both  as  to  the  number  and  the  class  of  troops,  that 
I  have  not  ventured  to  speak  with  any  certainty.  Some  say 
that  ten  thousand  fresh  troops  were  levied  by  way  of  re-en- 
forcement; others  that  four  new  legions  were  enrolled,  so 
that  there  should  be  an  available  force  of  eight  legions ;  they 
say  also  that  the  number  of  the  infantry  and  the  cavalry  in  each 
legion  was  augmented,  a  thousand  foot  and  a  hundred  horse 
being  added  to  each,  so  that  a  legion  now  had  five  thousand 
foot  and  three  hundred  horse,  the  allies  supplying  double  the 
number  of  cavalry  and  the  same  number  of  infantry.  It  is 
affirmed  by  some  writers  that  there  were  eighty-seven  thou- 
sand two  hundred  armed  men  in  the  Roman  camp  when  Can- 
nae was  fought.  All  indeed  agree  that  things  were  done  with 
1  None  of  the  others  received  enough  votes. — D.  O. 


6.  C.  216]  Alt)  SENT  BY  KING  HiEfcO 

more  vigour  and  energy  than  in  former  years,  because  the 
dictator  had  given  them  the  hope  that  the  enemy  might  be 
conquered. 

But  before  the  new  legions  marched  from  Rome,  the  Col- 
lege of  the  Ten  were  directed  to  consult  and  examine  the 
sacred  books  on  account  of  the  general  terror  which  certain 
new  portents  had  caused.  It  was  declared  that  both  at  Rome, 
on  Mount  Aventine,  and  at  Aricia,  and  at  the  same  hour,  there 
had  fallen  a  shower  of  stones ;  that  statues  in  the  Sabine  coun- 
try had  dripped  plentifully  with  blood,  and  that  cold  water  had 
flowed  from  a  hot  spring.  And  indeed  the  frequent  repetition 
of  this  portent  was  peculiarly  alarming.  In  the  vaulted  street 
which  used  to  lead  to  the  Campus  several  men  were  struck  | 
and  killed  by  lightning.  These  portents  were  expiated  as  the 
books  directed.  Envoys  from  Paestum1  brought  bowls  of  gold 
to  Rome.  They  received  a  vote  of  thanks,  as  had  the  people 
of  Naples,  but  the  gold  was  not  accepted. 

About  the  same  time  there  arrived  at  Ostia  a  fleet  from 
King  Hiero  with  a  great  supply  of  provisions.  The  envoys 
were  introduced  into  the  senate  and  spoke  to  this  effect :  "  The 
news  of  the  destruction  of  the  consul  Caius  Flaminius  and  his 
army  was  so  grievous  to  King  Hiero  that  he  could  not  have 
been  more  troubled  by  any  disaster  to  himself  and  his  realm. 
And  so,  though  he  is  well  aware  that  the  greatness  of  the  Ro- 
man people  is  almost  more  worthy  of  admiration  in  disaster 
than  in  success,  yet  he  has  sent  everything  with  which  good 
and  loyal  allies  are  wont  to  supply  the  needs  of  war,  and  he 
earnestly  entreats  the  senate  not  to  refuse  to  accept  them. 
First  of  all,  for  good  fortune's  sake,  we  bring  a  golden  statue 
of  Victory,  weighing  two  hundred  and  twenty  pounds.  Ac- 
cept it,  and  keep  it,  and  reckon  it  as  your  own  forever.  We 
have  also  brought  three  hundred  thousand  pecks  of  wheat, 
and  two  hundred  thousand  of  barley,  lest  supplies  should  fail 
you,  and  we  will  bring  in  all  that  you  want  besides  to  any  point 
you  may  command.  The  king  knows  that  the  Roman  people 
use  no  infantry  or  cavalry  that  is  not  Roman,  or  of  the  Latin 
nation,  yet  he  has  seen  in  the  camps  of  Rome  light-armed 
troops  even  of  foreign  race.  He  has  sent,  therefore,  a  thou- 
sand archers  and  slingers,  a  force  well  fitted  to  cope  with  the 
islanders  and  Moors  and  other  tribes  who  fight  with  missiles." 
The  envoys  added  the  suggestion  that  the  praetor  command- 
ing in  Sicily  should  cross  over  with  a  fleet  to  Africa.  The 

1  First  a  Greek,  later  a  Roman,  colony  on  the  coast,  about  fifty  miles 
south  of  Naples.  The  ruined  temples  there  are  the  finest  remains  of  the 
kind  outside  of  Athens. — D.  O. 


330  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

enemy,  with  war  in  their  own  borders,  would  be  less  free  to 
send  re-enforcements  to  Hannibal. 

The  senate  replied  that  Hiero  was  an  honest  man  and  an 
admirable  ally,  who  had  been  consistently  loyal  from  the  day 
that  he  became  the  friend  of  the  Roman  people,  and  had  mu- 
nificently helped  the  commonwealth  of  Rome  at  all  times  and 
in  all  places.  This  loyalty  was  as  dear  to  the  Roman  people 
as  it  deserved  to  be.  They  had  not  accepted  the  gold  that  had 
been  offered  by  certain  nations,  though  they  accepted  the  kind- 
ness of  the  act.  But  they  did  accept,  for  good  fortune's  sake, 
the  statue  of  Victory,  and  gave  and  consecrated  to  the  goddess 
a  seat  in  the  Capitol,  the  temple  of  almighty  and  most  merciful 
Jupiter.  "  Solemnly  established  of  her  own  good-will  and  pleas- 
ure in  that  citadel  of  Rome,  she  will  ever  be  firm  and  steadfast 
to  the  Roman  people."  The  slingers,  the  archers,  and  the  corn 
were  handed  over  to  the  consuls.  Twenty-five  ships  of  five 
banks  of  oars  were  added  to  the  fleet  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  sail,  which  Titus  Otacilius,  the  pro-praetor,  had  in 
Sicily,  and  leave  was  given  him  to  cross  over  to  Africa,  if  he 
thought  it  for  the  public  advantage. 

The  consuls,  after  completing  their  levy,  delayed  their  de- 
parture a  few  days  till  the  soldiers  from  the  allies  and  the  Latin 
nation  should  come  in.  Then — a  thing  never  done  before — 
the  troops  had  the  oath  of  allegiance  administered  to  them  by 
the  tribunes  of  the  soldiers.  Up  to  that  time  there  had  been 
nothing  but  the  obligation  to  assemble  at  the  bidding  of  the 
consuls  and  not  to  depart  without  their  leave,  and  the  custom, 
when  they  were  formed  into  their  companies  of  a  hundred  and 
their  troops  of  ten,  that  the  infantry  soldiers  of  each  company 
and  the  horsemen  of  each  troop  swore  to  each  other  that  they 
would  not  leave  their  fellows  for  fear's  sake  or  flight,  nor  quit 
their  ranks  except  to  take  up  or  seek  a  weapon,  to  strike  a  foe, 
or  to  save  a  friend.  From  a  voluntary  agreement  among  them- 
selves, this  was  now  changed  into  an  oath  regularly  admin- 
istered by  the  tribunes. 

Before  the  army  left  Rome,  the  consul  Varro  delivered  sev- 
eral fierce  harangues,  in  which  he  declared  that  on  the  very 
day  on  which  he  saw  the  enemy  he  would  finish  this  war, 
which,  brought  as  it  had  been  into  Italy  by  the  nobles,  would 
cling  to  the  vitals  of  the  commonwealth,  if  it  had  more  gen- 
erals such  as  Fabius.  His  colleague  Paulus  spoke  once,  and 
that  on  the  day  before  he  left  the  city,  with  words  that  were 
more  true  than  welcome.  He  said  nothing  harsh  against 
Varro,  except  this  only,  that  he  wondered  how  a  general  with- 
out knowing  anything  of  his  own  or  the  enemy's  army,  of  the 


B.  C.  2i6]  FABIUS'S  ADDRESS  TO  PAULUS  331 

nature  of  the  ground,  or  the  geography  of  the  country,  could 
be  sure,  while  he  was  still  a  civilian  in  the  city,  what  he  would 
have  to  do  when  he  was  a  soldier,  and  could  even  predict  the 
day  on  which  he  would  give  battle  to  his  foe.  As  for  himself, 
seeing  that  circumstances  determine  plans,  rather  than  plans 
circumstances,  he  would  indulge  in  no  premature  anticipations, 
and  would  hope  that  action  cautiously  and  deliberately  con- 
ducted would  end  in  success.  Rashness,  besides  its  folly,  was 
in  this  conjuncture  peculiarly  unfortunate.  Evident  as  it 
was  that  Paulus  would  voluntarily  prefer  counsels  of  safety 
to  counsels  of  haste,  Quintus  Fabius  Maximus,  wishing  to 
strengthen  him  in  this  resolve,  thus  addressed  him,  it  is  said, 
on  the  eve  of  his  departure : 

"  Had  you  a  colleague  like  yourself,  Lucius  yEmilius — and 
I  would  that  it  were  so ! — or  were  you  like  your  colleague,  my 
words  would  be  superfluous.  Were  both  of  you  good  men, 
you  would  do  all  that  the  common  weal  and  your  own  honour 
demanded ;  were  both  of  you  bad  men,  you  would  neither  lis- 
ten to  my  words  nor  lay  my  counsels  to  heart.  As  it  is,  when 
I  see  what  your  colleague  is,  and  what  you  are,  I  speak,  and 
speak  only  to  you,  whose  valour  and  patriotism  must,  I  see, 
be  all  in  vain  if  one  half  of  the  commonwealth  be  helpless  and 
evil  counsels  have  the  same  weight  and  authority  as  good. 
You  are  mistaken,  Paulus,  if  you  think  that  you  will  not  have 
to  contend  quite  as  much  with  Terentius  as  with  Hannibal. 
I  do  not  know  whether  you  will  not  find  this  opponent  more 
dangerous  to  you  than  that  open  enemy.  With  the  one  you 
will  contend  in  the  battle-field  only;  with  the  other  in  every 
place,  at  every  time.  Against  Hannibal  and  his  legions,  you 
will  fight  with  your  infantry  and  your  cavalry;  Varro,  when 
in  command,  will  assail  you  with  your  own  troops.  Heaven 
forbid  that  I  should  trouble  you  with  the  sinister  recollection 
of  Flaminius!  Yet,  when  he  was  consul,  it  was  only  in  his 
command  and  in  the  army  that  he  began  to  show  his  insanity ; 
this  man,  before  he  stood  for  the  consulship,  while  he  was 
standing  for  it,  and  now  that  he  is  consul,  before  he  has  seen 
the  camp  or  the  enemy,  has  played  and  is  playing  the  madman. 
If  he  could  raise  such  storms  among  our  civilians  by  bragging 
of  battle  and  battle-fields,  what,  think  you,  will  he  do  with 
armed  men — young  men,  remember — in  circumstances  where 
action  follows  immediately  on  speech?  Yet  if  he  shall  give 
battle  forthwith,  as  he  declares  he  will  do,  then  either  I  know 
nothing  of  military  art,  of  this  kind  of  war,  and  of  this  enemy, 
or  some  other  place  will  be  made  yet  more  famous  than  Trasu- 
mennus  by  our  disasters.  This  is  no  time  for  boasting,  when 


LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

you  only  are  here,  and  I,  if  I  err,  would  rather  err  in  despising 
than  in  seeking  fame ;  but  this  is  the  simple  truth.  There  is 
but  one  method  of  fighting  with  Hannibal,  and  that  is  the 
method  which  I  followed.  It  is  not  only  results  that  show  us 
this  (fools  are  taught  by  results),  but  a  reasoning  which  has 
remained  and  must  remain  unchanged  as  long  as  circum- 
stances shall  continue  the  same.  It  is  in  Italy  we  are  fighting, 
in  our  own  home,  on  our  native  soil ;  countrymen  and  allies 
are  everywhere  about  us ;  they  help  and  will  help  us  with  arms, 
men,  horses,  provisions  (this  proof  of  their  loyalty  they  have 
already  given  us  in  our  adversity),  while  time  makes  us  con- 
tinually better,  wiser,  more  steadfast.  Hannibal,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  in  a  strange,  a  hostile  country,  where  all  is  adverse 
and  unfriendly,  far  from  his  home  and  native  land.  Neither 
by  land  nor  sea  can  he  find  peace ;  no  cities,  no  fortified  places 
receive  him;  he  sees  nothing  anywhere  to  call  his  own;  he 
lives  from  day  to  day  on  what  he  steals.  Scarce  a  third  of  the 
army  with  which  he  crossed  the  Ebro  is  left  to  him.  He  has 
lost  more  by  hunger  than  by  the  sword,  and  for  the  few  that 
remain  he  has  not  food  enough.  Do  you  doubt,  then,  that  by 
sitting  still  we  shall  conquer  a  man  who  grows  feebler  every 
day,  who  has  neither  provisions  nor  re-enforcements  nor 
money?  How  long  has  he  been  sitting  before  the  walls  of 
Gereonium,  a  poor  fort  in  Apulia,  as  if  they  were  the  walls  of 
Carthage?  But  even  before  you  I  will  not  boast  of  myself. 
See  how  the  last  consuls,  Cneius  Servilius  and  Atilius  played 
with  him.  This  is  the  one  path  of  safety,  Paulus,  and  thus  it 
is  your  own  countrymen,  rather  than  the  enemy,  who  will  make 
it  difficult  and  dangerous  for  you.  True,  our  own  soldiers  will 
have  the  same  wish  as  the  enemy,  and  Varro,  Roman  consul 
as  he  is,  will  desire  exactly  what  Hannibal  the  Carthaginian 
general  desires.  Singly  you  must  resist  the  two  commanders. 
And  you  will  resist,  if  you  stand  really  firm  against  both 
popular  opinion  and  idle  rumour,  if  neither  the  foolish  vain- 
glorying  of  your  colleague  nor  your  own  undeserved  disgrace 
shall  move  you.  Truth,  they  say,  is  too  often  eclipsed,  but 
never  extinguished.  He  who  spurns  false  glory,  shall  pos- 
sess the  true.  Let  them  call  you  coward  when  you  are  cau- 
tious, dilatory  when  you  are  deliberate,  no  soldier  when  you 
show  true  strategy.  I  had  rather  that  a  skilful  enemy  should 
fear  than  that  a  foolish  friend  should  praise  you.  The  man 
who  dares  all  risks,  Hannibal  will  despise ;  the  man  who  does 
nothing  rashly,  he  will  fear.  I  do  not  advise  you  to  do  noth- 
ing; I  advise  you  that,  whatever  you  do,  you  let  reason,  not 
fortune,  guide  you.  Always  keep  yourself  and  your  forces 


B.  C.  2i6j    PAULUS  AND  VARRO  TAKE  COMMAND          333 

under  your  own  control.  Be  always  prepared,  always  on  the 
watch.  Never  miss  your  own  opportunity ;  never  give  an  op- 
portunity to  the  enemy.  He  who  will  not  hurry,  will  find  all 
things  clear,  all  things  certain.  Haste  is  both  improvident 
and  blind." 

The  consul's  reply  was  by  no  means  in  a  cheerful  tone. 
He  allowed  that  what  Fabius  said  was  true,  but  not  that  it  was 
easy  to  put  into  practice.  A  dictator  had  found  his  master  of 
the  horse  unmanageable.  What  power  and  influence  would 
a  consul  have  to  resist  a  turbulent  and  headstrong  colleague? 
"  In  my  first  consulship,"  said  Paulus,  "  I  escaped,  half  con- 
sumed, out  of  the  fire  of  popular  fury ;  I  wish  that  all  things 
may  turn  out  well.  If  any  disaster  befall  us,  I  shall  sooner 
trust  my  life  to  the  weapons  of  the  enemy  than  to  the  votes  of 
my  enraged  fellow-citizens." 

It  was,  they  say,  with  these  words  on  his  lips  that  Paulus 
set  out.  He  was  attended  by  the  leading  patricians,  the  ple- 
beian consul,  by  his  own  plebeian  adherents,  more  conspicu- 
ously honoured  by  numbers  than  by  worth.  When  they 
reached  the  camp,  the  old  army  was  combined  with  the  new ; 
two  camps  were  formed,  the  newer  and  weaker  being  nearer 
to  Hannibal,  while  the  first  retained  the  greater  part  of  the 
army  and  all  the  best  troops.  Marcus  Atilius,  consul  of  the 
last  year,  pleaded  his  age,  and  was  sent  back  to  Rome ;  Gemi- 
nus  Servilius  was  set  to  command  a  Roman  legion  and  two 
thousand  cavalry  and  infantry  of  the  allies  in  the  smaller  camp. 
Hannibal,  though  perceiving  that  the  hostile  forces  were  half 
as  large  again  as  before,  was  yet  marvellously  delighted  at 
the  arrival  of  the  consuls.  Not  only  was  there  nothing  left 
out  of  the  plunder  that  every  day  brought  in,  but  there  was 
not  even  a  place  remaining  to  be  plundered ;  all  the  corn  had 
been  carried  into  fortified  towns  as  soon  as  the  country  grew 
unsafe,  so  that,  as  was  afterward  discovered,  scarce  ten  days' 
supply  of  corn  remained,  and  the  Spaniards  had  arranged  to 
desert  from  sheer  hunger,  if  only  the  Romans  could  have 
waited  for  their  full  opportunity. 

Chance  gave  encouragement  to  the  rash  and  impetuous 
temper  of  the  consul  in  a  confused  skirmish  that  began  in  an 
attempt  to  drive  off  some  plunderers,  followed  by  a  hasty  rush 
of  the  soldiers  without  preparation  or  orders  from  their  com- 
manders, and  the  fortune  of  the  day  went  against  the  Cartha- 
ginians. As  many  as  seventeen  hundred  fell ;  of  the  Romans 
and  allies  not  more  than  a  hundred  were  killed.  The  consul 
Paulus,  who  was  in  command  that  day  (the  two  consuls  com- 
manded alternately),  checked  the  wild  pursuit  of  the  conquer- 


334  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  C.  216 

ors,  amid  wrathful  protestations  from  Varro,  that  they  were 
letting  the  enemy  slip  out  of  their  hands,  and  that  he  might 
have  been  thoroughly  beaten  had  they  not  paused.  Hannibal 
was  not  much  distressed  at  this  loss.  He  rather  believed  that 
it  would  be,  so  to  speak,  a  bait  to  the  rashness  of  the  head- 
strong consul  and  of  the  new  soldiers  especially.  He  knew 
quite  as  much  about  his  foe  as  he  did  about  his  own  troops; 
he  knew  that  two  men  wholly  unlike  and  without  unity  of  pur- 
pose were  in  command,  and  that  nearly  two  thirds  of  the  army 
were  recruits.  It  seemed  to  him  that  both  time  and  place 
favoured  a  stratagem.  Making  his  soldiers  carry  with  them 
nothing  but  their  arms,  he  quitted  his  camp,  leaving  it  full  of 
property  both  public  and  private.  He  drew  up  his  infantry  in 
concealment  behind  the  hills  on  his  left,  and  his  cavalry  on 
the  right ;  and  made  the  baggage  pass  up  the  valley  between, 
hoping  to  surprise  the  Romans  while  their  thoughts  and  hands 
were  busied  with  the  plunder  of  a  camp  which  seemed  to  have 
been  deserted  by  the  sudden  flight  of  its  occupants.  Many 
fires  were  left  in  the  camp,  intended  to  create  the  impression 
that  he  had  wished  to  keep  the  consuls  where  they  were,  till 
he  had  got  a  long  start  in  his  retreat,  just  as  he  had  deceived 
Fabius  the  year  before. 

When  day  broke,  the  Romans  saw  with  astonishment,  first, 
that  the  pickets  were  withdrawn,  and  then  when  they  ap- 
proached the  camp,  that  there  was  an  unusual  stillness.  As 
soon  as  they  were  quite  certain  that  it  was  deserted,  there  was 
a  rush  to  the  headquarters  of  the  consul,1  and  a  cry  that  the 
enemy  had  fled  in  such  haste  that  they  had  abandoned  their 
camp  with  the  tents  standing,  and  that  to  conceal  their  retreat, 
many  fires  had  been  left  burning.  A  loud  shout  was  set  up 
that  the  consuls  should  at 'once  order  an  advance  and  lead 
them  to  pursue  the  enemy,  and  forthwith  plunder  the  camp. 
One  of  the  consuls  was  nothing  better  than  one  of  the  mob 
of  soldiers.  Paulus  said  again  and  again  that  they  must  be 
prudent  and  cautious.  At  last,  seeing  no  other  way  of  hold- 
ing his  own  against  the  mutineers  and  their  leader,  he  sent 
Marius  Statilius  with  a  Lucanian  troop  of  horse  under  his  com- 
mand to  reconnoitre. 

Riding  up  to  the  gates  and  bidding  the  rest  remain  outside 
the  lines,  Marius  and  two  others  entered  the  intrenchments, 
and  after  carefully  surveying  every  point,  brought  back  word 
that  there  was  certainly  some  hidden  danger ;  that  the  fires  that 
had  been  left  were  on  the  side  of  the  camp  nearest  to  the  Ro- 
mans, the  tents  were  open  and  everything  of  value  was  left  per- 
1  The  consul  in  command  on  that  day. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  2i6]  MUTINY  IN   HANNIBAL'S  ARMY  335 

fectly  accessible;  that  he  had  even  seen  silver  strewn  at  ran- 
dom in  some  places  along  the  paths,  as  if  to  invite  plunder. 
What  was  calculated  to  restrain  the  soldiers  from  their  greed  of 
gain,  only  inflamed  them.  A  shout  arose  that  if  the  signal  were 
not  given  they  would  go  without  their  generals ;  but  there  was 
a  general  forthcoming,  for  Varro  immediately  gave  the  signal 
to  start.  Paulus,  whose  only  wish  was  for  delay,  heard  that  the 
auguries  of  the  sacred  chicken  x  did  not  sanction  an  advance, 
and  bade  the  fact  be  communicated  to  Varro  just  as  he  was 
marching  out  of  the  camp-gates.  Varro  was  greatly  vexed, 
but  the  recent  disaster  of  Flaminius  and  the  famous  defeat  of 
the  consul  Claudius  in  the  first  Punic  war,2  had  impressed  re- 
ligious fears  upon  his  mind.  I  may  almost  say  that  Heaven 
itself  that  day  postponed  rather  than  averted  the  doom  that 
was  hanging  over  the  Romans.  It  so  happened  that  while  the 
consul  was  bidding  the  soldiers  retire  into  the  camp  and  they 
were  refusing  to  obey  him,  two  slave  attendants,  one  belong- 
ing to  a  trooper  from  Formise  and  the  other  to  a  trooper  from 
Sidicinum,  who  had  been  captured  among  the  foragers  by  the 
Numidians  when  Servilius  and  Atilius  were  consuls,  that  day 
escaped  to  their  old  masters.  They  were  brought  to  the  con- 
suls and  told  them  that  the  whole  army  of  Hannibal  lay  in 
ambush  behind  the  hills.  Their  opportune  arrival  restored 
the  authority  of  the  consuls,  though  one  consul,  bent  as  he 
was  on  popularity,  had  by  an  unprincipled  indulgence  im- 
paired the  dignity  of  his  office.3 

Hannibal  saw  that  the  Romans  had  indeed  moved  rashly, 
but  were  not  yet  venturing  the  last  desperate  risk,  and  he 
returned  disappointed  to  his  camp,  now  that  his  stratagem  was 
discovered.  He  could  not  remain  there  many  days,  as  provi- 
sions were  running  short.  Every  day  new  plans  suggested 
themselves,  not  only  among  his  troops,  a  miscellaneous  crowd, 
the  refuse  of  the  world,  but  to  the  general  himself.  Murmurs 
that  soon  grew  into  loud  clamours  had  been  heard,  demands 
for  overdue  pay,  and  complaints  first  of  scanty  rations  and 
then  of  absolute  famine ;  rumours  had  spread  that  the  merce- 
naries, the  Spaniards  especially,  had  talked  of  changing  sides, 
and  Hannibal  himself  was  said  to  have  sometimes  had  thoughts 
of  retreating  into  Gaul,  hurrying  away  with  his  cavalry,  but 
leaving  all  his  infantry  behind.  Such  being  the  plans  discussed 

1  That  is,  they  refused  to  eat  the  corn  offered  them. — D.  O. 

1  Publius  Claudius  commanded  the  fleet  at  the  battle  of  Drepanum. 
When  informed  that  the  sacred  chickens  refused  to  eat  he  replied,  "  Then 
they  shall  drink,"  and  ordered  them  to  be  cast  overboard  forthwith. — D.  O. 

*  By  his  insubordination  on  his  colleague's  day  of  command. — D.  O, 


LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  216 

and  such  the  temper  prevailing  in  the  camp,  he  resolved  to 
move  into  Apulia,  a  warmer  country,  where  the  harvest  would 
be  earlier;  the  greater  too  his  distance  from  the  enemy,  the 
more  difficult  would  desertion  be  for  the  weaker  spirits  in  his 
army.  He  started  during  the  night,  leaving,  as  he  had  done 
before,  a  few  fires  and  tents  to  deceive  the  enemy.  Fear  of 
some  such  stratagem  as  before  would,  he  hoped,  keep  them 
where  they  were.  But  when  after  a  thorough  exploration  of 
all  the  country  beyond  the  camp,  and  on  the  other  side  of  the 
hills,  by  Statilius,  the  Lucanian  officer  mentioned  already,  it 
was  reported  that  the  hostile  army  had  been  seen  in  the  dis- 
tance, the  question  of  pursuit  was  at  once  debated.  The  two 
consuls  adhered  to  their  former  opinions,  but  as  nearly  all 
voted  with  Varro,  and  no  one,  except  the  ex-consul  Servilius, 
with  Paulus,  the  judgment  of  the  majority  prevailed,  and  the 
army  moved  out,  to  make  Cannae,1  for  so  destiny  would  have 
it,  famous  forever  for  a  great  Roman  defeat.  Hannibal  had 
pitched  his  camp  near  that  village,  so  as  not  to  face  the  wind 
called  Vulturnus,  which,  blowing  across  plains  parched  with 
drought,  carries  with  it  clouds  of  dust.  The  arrangement 
was  most  convenient  for  the  camp,  and  was  afterward  found  to 
be  of  similar  advantage  when  they  marshalled  their  troops  for 
battle.  Their  own  faces  were  turned  away  and  the  wind  did 
but  blow  on  their  backs,  while  the  enemy  with  whom  they 
were  to  fight  was  blinded  by  volumes  of  dust. 

The  consuls,  after  duly  reconnoitring  the  roads,  followed 
the  Carthaginians  till  they  reached  Cannae,  where  they  had  the 
enemy  in  sight.  They  then  intrenched  and  fortified  two 
camps,  separating  their  forces  by  about  the  same  distance  as 
before  at  Gereonium.  The  river  Aufidus,  which  flowed  near 
both  camps,  furnished  water  to  both  armies,  the  soldiers  ap- 
proaching as  they  most  conveniently  could,  not,  however,  with- 
out some  skirmishing.  From  the  smaller  camp,  which  had 
been  pitched  on  the  farther  side  of  the  Aufidus,  the  Romans 
procured  water  with  less  difficulty,  as  the  opposite  bank  was 
not  held  by  any  hostile  force.  Hannibal  saw  his  hope  accom- 
plished, that  the  consuls  would  offer  battle  on  ground  made 
for  the  action  of  cavalry,  in  which  arm  he  was  invincible.  He 
drew  up  his  men,  and  sought  to  provoke  his  foe  by  throwing 
forward  his  Numidian  troopers.  Then  the  Roman  camp  was 
once  more  disturbed  by  mutiny  among  the  troops  and  dis- 
agreement between  the  consuls.  Paulus  taunted  Varro  with 
the  rashness  of  Sempronius  and  Flaminius ;  Varro  reproached 
Paulus  with  copying  Fabius,  an  example  attractive  to  timid 
1  Midway  between  Barletta  and  Canosa, — D.  O. 


B.  C.  216]  THE   ARMIES   AT   CANN^  337 

and  indolent  commanders,  and  called  both  gods  and  men  to 
witness  that  it  was  no  fault  of  his  if  Hannibal  had  now  a  pre- 
scriptive possession  of  Italy.  "  I,"  said  he,  "  have  my  hands 
tied  and  held  fast  by  my  colleague.  My  soldiers,  furious  and 
eager  to  fight,  are  stripped  of  their  swords  and  arms."  Paulus 
declared  that  if  any  disaster  befell  the  legions  recklessly  thrown 
and  betrayed  into  battle  without  deliberation  or  forethought, 
he  would  share  all  their  fortunes,  while  holding  himself  free 
from  all  blame.  Let  Varro  look  to  it  that  they  whose  tongues 
were  so  ready  and  so  bold,  had  hands  equally  vigorous  in  the 
day  of  battle. 

While  they  thus  wasted  the  time  in  disputing  rather  than 
in  deliberating,  Hannibal,  who  had  kept  his  lines  drawn  up 
till  late  in  the  day,  called  back  the  rest  of  his  troops  into  his 
camp,  but  sent  forward  the  Numidian  cavalry  across  the  river 
to  attack  the  water-parties  from  the  smaller  of  the  two  Roman 
camps.  Coming  on  with  shouting  and  uproar  they  sent  the 
undisciplined  crowd  flying  before  they  had  even  reached  the 
bank,  and  rode  on  till  they  came  on  an  outpost  stationed 
before  the  rampart  and  close  to  the  very  camp-gates.  So 
scandalous  did  it  seem  that  a  Roman  camp  should  be  alarmed 
by  some  irregular  auxiliaries  that  the  only  circumstance 
which  hindered  the  Romans  from  immediately  crossing  the 
river  and  forming  their  line  of  battle  was,  that  the  supreme 
command  that  day  rested  with  Paulus.  But  the  next  day 
Varro,  without  consulting  his  colleague,  gave  the  signal  to  en- 
gage,1 and  drawing  up  his  forces  led  them  across  the  river. 
Paulus  followed  him ;  he  could  withhold  his  sanction  from 
the  movement,  but  not  his  support.  The  river  crossed,  they 
joined  to  their  own  the  forces  retained  by  them  in  the  smaller 
camp,  and  then  formed  their  lines.  On  the  right  wing  (the 
one  nearer  to  the  river)  they  posted  the  Roman  cavalry  and 
next  the  infantry.  On  the  extreme  flank  of  the  left  wing  were 
the  allied  cavalry,  next  the  allied  infantry,  side  by  side  with 
the  Roman  legions  in  the  centre.  Slingers  and  other  light- 
armed  auxiliaries  made  up  the  first  line.  Paulus  commanded 
the  right  wing ;  Varro  the  left ;  Geminius  Servilius  had  charge 
of  the  centre. 

At  dawn,  Hannibal,  sending  in  advance  his  slingers  and 
light-armed  troops,  crossed  the  river,  assigning  each  division 
its  position  as  it  crossed.  His  Gallic  and  Spanish  cavalry  he 
posted  near  the  river  bank  on  the  left  wing,  facing  the  Roman 
horse;  the  right  wing  was  assigned  to  the  Numidian  cavalry; 
the  centre  showed  a  strong  force  of  infantry,  having  on  either 

1  This  was  a  red  flag  hoisted  above  the  general's  tent. — D.  O. 

22 


338  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

side  the  African  troops,  with  the  Gauls  and  Spaniards  between 
them.  These  Africans  might  have  been  taken  for  a  Roman 
force;  so  largely  were  they  equipped  with  weapons  taken  at 
Trebia,  and  yet  more  at  Trasumennus.  The  Gauls  and  Span- 
iards had  shields  of  very  nearly  the  same  shape,  but  their 
swords  were  widely  different  in  size  and  form,  the  Gauls  hav- 
ing them  very  long  and  pointless,  while  the  Spaniards,  who 
were  accustomed  to  assail  the  enemy  with  thrusts  rather  than 
with  blows,  had  them  short,  handy,  and  pointed.  These  na- 
tions had  a  specially  terrible  appearance,  so  gigantic  was  their 
stature  and  so  strange  their  look.  The  Gauls  were  naked 
above  the  navel;  the  Spaniards  wore  tunics  of  linen  bordered 
with  purple,  of  a  whiteness  marvellously  dazzling.  The  total 
number  of  the  infantry  who  were  that  day  ranged  in  line  was 
forty  thousand,  that  of  the  cavalry  ten  thousand.  Hasdrubal 
commanded  the  left  wing;  Maharbal  the  right;  Hannibal  him- 
self, with  his  brother  Mago,  was  in  the  centre.  The  sun — 
whether  the  troops  were  purposely  so  placed,  or  whether  it 
was  by  chance — fell  very  conveniently  sideways  on  both 
armies,  the  Romans  facing  the  south,  the  Carthaginians  the 
north.  The  wind  (called  Vulturnus  by  the  natives  of  those 
parts)  blew  straight  against  the  Romans  and  whirled  clouds 
of  dust  into  their  faces  till  they  could  see  nothing. 

With  a  loud  shout  the  auxiliaries  charged,  the  light  troops 
thus  beginning  the  battle.  Next  the  Gallic  and  Spanish  horse 
of  the  left  wing  encountered  the  right  wing  of  the  Romans. 
The  fight  was  not  at  all  like  a  cavalry  engagement ;  they  had 
to  meet  face  to  face;  there  was  no  room  for  manoeuvring, 
shut  in  as  they  were  by  the  river  on  one  side  and  the  lines  of 
infantry  on  the  other.  Both  sides  pushed  straight  forward  till, 
with  their  horses  brought  to  a  stand  and  crowded  together 
in  a  mass,  each  man  seized  his  antagonist  and  strove  to  drag 
him  from  his  seat.  The  struggle  now  became  mainly  a  strug- 
gle of  infantry;  but  the  conflict  was  rather  fierce  than  pro- 
tracted. The  Roman  cavalry  were  defeated  and  put  to  flight. 
Just  before  the  encounter  of  the  cavalry  came  to  an  end  the 
fight  between  the  infantry  began.  The  two  sides  were  equal 
in  strength  and  courage,  as  long  as  the  Gauls  and  Span- 
iards kept  their  ranks  unbroken ;  at  last  the  Romans,  after 
long  and  repeated  efforts,  broke,  by  their  wedge-shaped  front 
and  deep  formation,  the  enemy's  column,  which,  advanced 
as  it  was  from  the  rest  of  the  line,  was  shallow  and  therefore 
weak.  Pursuing  the  broken  and  rapidly  retreating  foe,  they 
made  their  way  without  a  halt  through  the  rout  of  panic- 
stricken  fugitives  till  they,  reached,  first,  the  centre  of  the 


B.  C.  216]  THE  BATTLE  OF  CANN.E  339 

line,  and  then,  meeting  with  no  check,  the  reserves  of  the 
African  troops.  These  had  been  stationed  on  the  wings  which 
had  been  somewhat  retired,  while  the  centre,  where  the  Gauls 
and  Spaniards  had  been  posted,  was  proportionately  advanced.1 
As  that  column  fell  back,  the  line  became  level;  when  they 
pushed  their  retreat,  they  made  a  hollow  in  the  centre.  The 
Africans  now  overlapped  on  either  side,  and  as  the  Romans 
rushed  heedlessly  into  the  intervening  space,  they  first  out- 
flanked them  and  then,  extending  their  own  formation,  ac- 
tually hemmed  in  their  rear.  Upon  this  the  Romans,  who 
had  fought  one  battle  to  no  purpose,  quitted  the  Gauls  and 
Spaniards,  whose  rear  they  had  been  slaughtering,  and  began  a 
new  conflict  with  the  Africans,  a  conflict  unfair,  not  only  be- 
cause they  were  shut  in  with  foes  all  round  them,  but  because 
they  were  wearied,  while  the  enemy  was  fresh  and  vigorous. 

On  the  left  wing  of  the  Romans  the  cavalry  of  the  allies 
had  been  posted  against  the  Numidians.  Here,  too,  battle 
had  been  joined,  though  with  little  spirit  for  a  time,  the  first 
movement  being  a  Carthaginian  stratagem.  Nearly  five  hun- 
dred Numidians  who,  besides  their  usual  armour  and  missiles 
had  swords  hidden  under  their  cuirasses,  rode  out  from  their 
own  line  with  their  shields  slung  behind  their  backs  as  though 
they  had  been  deserters,  leaped  in  haste  from  their  horses  and 
threw  their  shields  and  javelins  at  the  feet  of  the  Romans. 
They  were  received  into  the  centre  of  the  line,  taken  to  the 
extreme  rear,  and  bidden  to  keep  their  place  behind.  While 
the  battle  spread  from  place  to  place,  they  remained  motion- 
less; but  as  soon  as  all  eyes  and  thoughts  were  intent  on  the 
conflict,  they  seized  the  shields  which  lay  scattered  everywhere 
among  the  piles  of  dead,  and  fell  on  the  Roman  line  from  the 
rear.  They  wounded  the  backs  and  legs  of  the  men,  and, 
while  they  made  a  great  slaughter,  spread  far  greater  panic 
and  confusion.  While  there  was  terror  and  flight  on  the 
right,  and  in  the  centre  an  obstinate  resistance,  though  with 
little  hope,  Hasdrubal,  who  was  in  command  in  this  quarter, 
withdrew  the  Numidians  from  the  centre,  seeing  that  they 
fought  with  but  little  spirit,  and  having  sent  them  in  all  direc- 
tions to  pursue  the  enemy,  re-enforced  with  the  Spanish  and 
Gallic  cavalry  the  African  troops,  wearied  as  they  now  were 
with  slaughter  rather  than  with  fighting.2 

1  The  Carthaginian  line  was  drawn  up  in  crescent  formation,  with  the 
centre  purposely  thinned. — D.  O. 

*  The  Gallic  and  Spanish  horse  had  circled  the  Roman  rear,  and,  hav- 
ing broken  the  cavalry  of  the  allies  and  sent  the  Numidians  in  pursuit, 
they  now  fell  upon  the  rear  of  the  Roman  centre. — D.  O. 


340  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

Paulus  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  field.1  He  had  been 
seriously  wounded  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  battle  by 
a  bullet  from  a  sling,  but  yet  he  repeatedly  encountered  Han- 
nibal with  a  compact  body  of  troops,  and  at  several  points 
restored  the  fortune  of  the  day.  He  was  protected  by  the 
Roman  cavalry,  who  at  last  sent  away  their  horses  when  the 
consul  became  too  weak  to  manage  his  charger.  Some  one 
told  Hannibal  that  the  consul  had  ordered  the  cavalry  to  dis- 
mount. "  He  might  better  hand  them  over  to  me  bound  hand 
and  foot,"  said  he.  The  horsemen  fought  on  foot  as  men 
were  likely  to  fight,  when,  the  victory  of  the  enemy  being 
beyond  all  doubt,  the  vanquished  preferred  dying  where  they 
stood  to  flight,  and  the  victors,  furious  with  those  who  de- 
layed their  triumph,  slaughtered  the  foes  whom  they  could 
not  move.  Move  them,  however,  they  did — that  is,  a  few 
survivors,  exhausted  with  wounds  and  fatigue.  All  were  then 
scattered,  and  such  as  were  able  sought  to  recover  their  horses 
and  fly.  Cn.  Lentulus,  as  he  galloped  by,  saw  the  consul  sit- 
ting on  a  stone  and  covered  with  blood.  "  Lucius  ^Emilius," 
he  cried,  "  the  one  man  whom  Heaven  must  regard  as  guilt- 
less of  this  day's  calamity,  take  this  horse  while  you  have 
some  strength  left,  and  I  am  here  to  be  with  you,  to  lift  you 
to  the  saddle,  and  to  defend  you.  Do  not  make  this  defeat 
yet  sadder  by  a  consul's  death.  There  are  weeping  and  sor- 
row enough  without  this."  The  consul  replied :  "  Tis  a  brave 
thought  of  thine,  Cn.  Cornelius;  but  waste  not  the  few  mo- 
ments you  have  for  escaping  from  the  enemy  in  fruitless  pity. 
My  public  message  to  the  senators  is  that  they  must  fortify 
Rome  and  make  its  garrison  as  strong  as  may  be  before  the 
victorious  enemy  arrives.  My  private  message  to  Quintus 
Fabius  is  that  Lucius  ^milius  remembered  his  teaching  in 
life  and  death.  As  for  me,  let  me  breathe  my  last  among  my 
slaughtered  soldiers.  I  would  not  again  leave  my  consulship 
to  answer  for  my  life,2  nor  would  I  stand  up  to  accuse  my  col- 
league, and  by  accusing  another  protect  my  own  innocence." 

While  they  thus  talked  together,  they  were  overtaken,  first 
by  a  crowd  of  Roman  fugitives  and  then  by  the  enemy.  These 
last  buried  the  consul  under  a  shower  of  javelins,  not  knowing 
who  he  was.  Lentulus  galloped  off  in  the  confusion.  The 
Romans  now  fled  wildly  in  every  direction.  Seven  thousand 
men  escaped  into  the  smaller,  ten  thousand  into  the  larger 
camp,  ten  thousand  more  into  the  village  of  Cannae  itself. 

1  He  had  passed  from  the  routed  right  coming  to  the  centre. — D.  O. 
1  He  had  been  tried  after  his  former  consulship  for  misappropriation 
of  plunder  taken  in  the  Illyrian  war. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  216]  THE   BATTLE   OF   CANNAE  34! 

These  last  were  immediately  surrounded  by  Carthalo  and  the 
cavalry,  for  no  fortification  protected  the  place.  The  other 
consul,  who,  whether  by  chance  or  of  set  purpose,  had  not 
joined  any  large  body  of  fugitives,  fled  with  about  five  hun- 
dred horsemen  to  Venusia.  Forty-five  thousand  five  hundred 
infantry,  two  thousand  seven  hundred  cavalry,  and  almost  as 
many  more  citizens  and  allies  are  said  to  have  fallen.  Among 
these  were  the  quaestors  of  both  consuls,  Lucius  Atilius  and 
Furius  Bibaculus,  twenty-nine  tribunes  of  the  soldiers,  not  a 
few  ex-consuls,  ex-praetors,  and  ex-aediles  (among  them  Cn. 
Servilius  and  Marcus  Minucius,  who  the  year  before  had  been 
the  master  of  the  horse,  and  consul  some  years  before  that), 
eighty  who  were  either  actual  senators  or  had  filled  such 
offices  as  made  them  eligible  for  the  senate,  and  who  had  vol- 
unteered to  serve  in  the  legions.  In  this  battle  three  thou- 
sand infantry  and  one  thousand  five  hundred  cavalry  are  said 
to  have  been  taken  prisoners. 

Such  was  the  battle  of  Cannae,  as  famous  as  the  disaster 
at  the  Allia,  and  though  less  serious  in  its  consequences, 
thanks  to  the  inaction  of  the  enemy,  yet  in  loss  of  men  still 
more  ruinous  and  disgraceful.  The  flight  at  the  Allia  lost  the 
city  but  saved  the  army;  at  Cannae  the  consul  who  fled  was 
followed  by  barely  fifty  men;  with  the  consul  who  perished, 
perished  nearly  the  whole  army. 

The  two  camps  held  a  defenceless  crowd  with  no  one  to 
command  them.  The  occupants  of  the  larger  camp  sent  a 
messenger  to  their  neighbours,  suggesting  that  they  should 
come  over  to  them,  while  night  still  kept  the  enemy  wrapped 
in  the  profound  sleep  that  would  follow  battle  and  the  joyous 
banquets  of  conquerors;  they  might  then  unite  in  one  body 
and  retreat  to  Canusium.  Some  wholly  scorned  the  proposal. 
"  Why,"  said  they,  "  do  not  the  men  who  send  for  us  come 
themselves,  being  just  as  well  able  to  effect  the  junction  as 
we?  The  fact  is  that  the  whole  space  between  is  crowded  with 
the  enemy,  and  they  had  sooner  expose  the  persons  of  others 
to  this  deadly  peril  than  their  own." 

Others  did  not  so  much  disapprove  of  the  proposal  as  want 
courage  to  execute  it.  Then  cried  Publius  Sempronius  Tudi- 
tanus,  a  tribune  of  the  soldiers :  "  Would  you  sooner  be  taken 
prisoners  by  this  rapacious  and  cruel  enemy,  and  have  a  price 
put  on  your  heads  and  your  value  determined  by  inquiries  as 
to  whether  you  are  Roman  citizens  or  Latin  allies,  while  others 
are  winning  honours  out  of  the  miseries  and  insults  you  en- 
dure? You  would  not  suffer  it  if  you  are  fellow-countrymen 
of  the  consul,  Lucius  ^milius,  who  chose  to  die  with  hon- 


LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

our  rather  than  live  with  disgrace,  and  of  all  those  gallant 
citizens  who  lie  in  heaps  about  him.  Before  day  comes  upon 
us,  before  larger  forces  of  the  enemy  intercept  our  way,  let 
us  charge  through  this  disorderly  and  undisciplined  foe  that 
clamours  at  our  gates.  Courage  and  the  sword  can  force 
their  way  even  through  the  densest  enemy.  Your  column 
can  as  easily  scatter  this  loose  disorganized  array  as  if  it  op- 
posed no  resistance.  Come,  then,  with  me,  all  you  who  wish 
yourselves  and  the  commonwealth  to  be  in  safety."  Saying 
this,  he  drew  his  sword,  formed  a  column,  and  passed  through 
the  midst  of  the  enemy.  Seeing  that  the  Numidians  aimed 
at  their  right  sides,  which  were  exposed,  they  changed  their 
shields  to  their  right  arms,  and  escaped  to  the  number  of  six 
hundred  into  the  greater  camp,  and  then,  having  been  joined 
by  another  considerable  force,  immediately  made  their  way 
to  Canusium  without  loss.  This  action  among  the  conquered 
came  more  from  the  impulse  which  natural  courage  or  acci- 
dent supplied  than  from  any  concerted  plan  or  any  officer's 
generalship. 

Round  the  victorious  Hannibal  crowded  his  officers  with 
congratulations  and  entreaties  that  now  that  this  mighty  war 
was  finished  he  should  take  what  remained  of  that  day  and 
the  following  night  for  rest,  and  give  the  same  to  his  wearied 
soldiers.  Maharbal,  the  general  of  his  cavalry,  thought  that 
there  should  be  no  pause.  "  Nay,"  he  cried,  "  that  you  may 
know  what  has  been  achieved  by  this  victory,  you  shall  hold 
a  conqueror's  feast  within  five  days  in  the  Capitol.  Pursue 
them;  I  will  go  before  you  with  my  cavalry,  and  they  shall 
know  that  you  are  come  before  they  know  you  are  coming." 
Hannibal  felt  that  his  success  was  too  great  for  him  to  be  able 
to  realize  it  at  the  moment.  "  He  commended,"  he  said, 
"  Maharbal's  zeal,  but  he  must  take  time  to  deliberate."  Ma- 
harbal replied :  "  Well,  the  gods  do  not  give  all  gifts  to  one 
man.  Hannibal,  you  know  how  to  conquer;  not  how  to  use 
a  conquest."  That  day's  delay  is  believed  to  have  saved  Rome 
and  its  empire. 

The  next  day,  at  daybreak,  they  issued  forth  to  collect  the 
spoil  and  to  gaze  upon  a  scene  of  slaughter,  at  which  even 
a  foe  must  have  shuddered.  Many  thousands  of  the  Roman 
dead  lay  there,  foot-soldiers  and  horsemen  as  chance  had 
thrown  them  together  in  the  battle  or  the  flight.  Some  were 
cut  down  by  the  foe  as  they  rose  covered  with  blood  from  the 
field  of  death,  revived  by  the  cold  of  the  morning  which  had 
closed  their  wounds.  Some,  who  were  discovered  lying  alive, 
but  with  the  sinews  of  thighs  and  knees  divided,  bared  their 


B.C.  216]  AFTER  THE   BATTLE  343 

necks  and  throats  and  begged  the  foe  to  shed  what  blood 
yet  remained  to  them.  Others  were  found  with  their  heads 
buried  in  holes  in  the  earth,  and  it  was  evident  that  they  had 
made  these  holes  for  themselves,  had  heaped  up  the  soil  on 
their  faces,  and  so  suffocated  themselves.  Of  all  sights  the 
most  striking  was  a  Numidian  who  lay  with  a  dead  Roman 
upon  him;  he  was  alive,  but  his  ears  and  nose  were  mangled, 
for  with  hands  that  were  powerless  to  grasp  a  weapon,  the 
man's  rage  had  turned  to  madness,  and  he  had  breathed  his 
last  while  he  tore  his  enemy  with  his  teeth. 

Till  a  late  hour  of  the  day  Hannibal  was  gathering  in 
the  spoils.  This  done,  he  marched  to  attack  the  smaller  camp. 
His  first  act  was  to  throw  up  an  earthwork,  and  so  shut  them 
off  from  the  river.  But  the  whole  force,  so  worn  out  were 
they  with  toil  and  sleeplessness  and  even  wounds,  surrendered 
sooner  than  he  had  expected.  It  was  agreed  that  they  should 
give  up  their  horses  and  arms,  should  pay  for  every  Roman 
citizen  three  hundred  "  chariot "  pieces,1  for  every  ally  two 
hundred,  for  every  slave  one  hundred,  and  that,  this  ransom 
discharged,  they  should  depart  with  one  garment  apiece.  They 
admitted  the  enemy  into  their  camp,  and  were  all  put  under 
arrest,  the  citizens  and  allies  being  kept  separate.  During  the 
delay  thus  caused,  all  who  had  strength  and  courage  suffi- 
cient— that  is,  about  four  thousand  infantry  and  two  hundred 
cavalry — escaped  from  the  greater  camp  and  sought  refuge, 
some  marching  in  column,  others  by  twos  and  threes,  across 
country,  a  way  quite  as  safe,  into  Canusium.  The  camp  was 
surrendered  by  the  timid  and  disabled  remainder  on  the  same 
terms  as  the  other.  The  booty  secured  was  immense,  and  the 
whole  of  it  was  handed  over  to  the  troops,  except  the  horses, 
the  prisoners,  and  any  silver  that  was  found.  Most  of  this 
was  in  the  trappings  of  the  horses;  for  of  plate  for  the  table 
they  used  very  little,  at  least  when  on  service.  Hannibal  then 
ordered  that  the  bodies  of  his  own  dead  should  be  brought 
together  for  burial.  It  is  said  t«hat  there  were  as  many  as 
eight  thousand,  all  men  of  tried  valour.  Some  writers  say 
that  the  body  of  the  Roman  consul  was  also  found  after  search 
and  buried. 

Those  who  had  made  their  escape  to  Canusium,  an  Apulian 
lady,  named  Busa,  of  distinguished  family  and  great  wealth, 
supplied  with  food,  clothing,  and  money  for  travelling,  asking 
from  the  people  of  Canusium  for  nothing  beyond  their  bare 

1  Most  of  the  consular  denarii  (worth  about  seventeen  cents)  bore  on 
their  reverse  the  device  of  a  four-horse  chariot  (quadriga)  or  a  two-horse 
chariot  (biga).— D.  O. 


344  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

walls  and  roofs.  For  this  munificence  the  senate  voted  her, 
at  the  end  of  the  war,  public  honours. 

At  Canusium  there  were  four  tribunes  of  the  soldiers, 
Fabius  Maximus  of  the  first  legion  (son  of  the  Fabius  who 
had  been  dictator  the  year  before),  Publicius  Bibulus,  and 
Publius  Cornelius  Scipio  of  the  second  legion,  and,  of  the 
third  legion,  Appius  Claudius  Pulcher,  who  had  very  recently 
been  aedile.  The  supreme  command  was  unanimously  as- 
signed to  Scipio,  who  was  a  very  young  man,  and  to  Claudius. 
They  were  holding  council  with  a  few  friends  about  the  state 
of  affairs,  when  Publius  Furius  Philus,  whose  father  was  an 
ex-consul,  said  that  it  was  idle  for  them  to  cling  to  utterly 
ruined  hopes.  The  state,  he  declared,  was  given  over  for  lost. 
Certain  young  nobles,  with  Lucius  Caecilius  Metellus  at  their 
head,  were  thinking  of  flying  beyond  sea  and  deserting  their 
country  for  the  service  of  some  foreign  king.  In  face  of  a 
peril,  terrible  in  itself,  and  coming  with  fresh  force  after  so 
many  disasters,  all  present  stood  motionless  in  amazement  and 
stupefaction.  They  proposed  that  a  council  should  be  called 
to  consider  the  matter,  but  the  young  Scipio,  Rome's  pre- 
destined champion  in  this  war,  declared  that  it  was  no  time 
for  a  council.  "  We  must  dare  and  act,"  he  said,  "  not  delib- 
erate, in  such  awful  calamity.  Let  all  who  desire  the  salva- 
tion of  their  country,  come  armed  with  me.  No  camp  is  more 
truly  a  camp  of  the  enemy  than  that  in  which  men  have  such 
thoughts."  He  immediately  started  with  a  few  followers  for 
the  house  of  Metellus;  there  he  found  a  gathering  of  the 
youths  of  whom  he  had  heard.  Drawing  his  sword  over  the 
heads  of  the  conspirators,  "  It  is  my  fixed  resolve,"  he  cried, 
"  as  I  will  not  myself  desert  the  commonwealth  of  Rome,  so 
not  to  suffer  any  other  Roman  citizen  to  desert  it;  if  I  know- 
ingly fail  therein,  almighty  and  merciful  Jupiter,  smite  me, 
my  house,  and  fortunes  with  utter  destruction !  I  insist  that 
you,  Lucius  Caecilius,  and  all  others  present,  take  this  oath 
after  me.  Whoever  takes  it  not,  may  be  sure  this  sword  is 
drawn  against  him."  They  were  as  frightened  as  if  they  saw 
the  victorious  Hannibal  before  them,  and  to  a  man  they  swore 
and  delivered  themselves  to  the  custody  of  Scipio. 

While  this  was  passing  at  Canusium,  the  consul  was  re- 
joined at  Venusia  1  by  as  many  as  four  thousand  five  hundred 
infantry  and  cavalry,  who  had  dispersed  over  the  country  in 
flight.  The  people  of  Venusia  distributed  them  among  various 
households  where  they  might  find  kindly  welcome  and  re- 
freshment. To  each  horseman  they  gave  an  outer  and  an 
1  Modern  Venosa. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  216]  CONSTERNATION   AT   ROME  345 

inner  garment  with  twenty-five  "  chariot  "  pieces,  to  each  foot- 
soldier  ten  pieces  and  such  arms  as  he  lacked.  Public  and 
private  hospitality  of  every  kind  was  shown  to  them ;  and  the 
town  did  its  best  not  to  let  a  lady  of  Canusium  surpass  the 
people  of  Venusia  in  liberality.  The  growing  numbers  *  made 
the  burden  on  Busa's  kindness  too  heavy.  There  were  now 
as  many  as  ten  thousand  men,  and  Appius  and  Scipio,  on  hear- 
ing that  the  other  consul  was  alive,  sent  to  tell  him  what  forces 
of  infantry  and  cavalry  they  had  with  them,  and  to  ask  him 
at  the  same  time  whether  he  would  have  the  army  moved  to 
Venusia  or  remain  at  Canusium.  Varro  brought  his  own 
troops  to  Canusium.  There  was  now,  at  least,  something  like 
a  consul's  army,  which  might  be  thought  fit  to  defend  itself 
against  the  enemy  behind  walls,  if  not  in  the  field. 

At  Rome  report  said  that  no  such  mere  remnant  of  citi- 
zens and  allies  survived,  but  that  the  army  with  the  two  con- 
suls had  been  utterly  destroyed,  and  that  the  whole  force  had 
ceased  to  exist.  Never  before,  with  Rome  itself  still  safe,  had 
there  been  such  panic  and  confusion  within  our  walls.  I  shall 
decline  the  task  of  attempting  a  lengthened  description  which 
could  not  but  be  far  inferior  to  the  truth.  The  year  before 
a  consul  with  his  army  had  perished  at  Trasumennus;  it  was 
not  wound  after  wound,  but  multiplied  disasters  that  were 
announced.  Two  consuls  and  the  armies  of  two  consuls  had 
perished.  Rome  had  now  no  camp,  no  general,  no  soldiers. 
Hannibal  was  master  of  Apulia,  of  Samnium,  of  nearly  the 
whole  of  Italy.  Certainly  there,  was  not  a  nation  in  the  world 
which  would  not  have  been  overwhelmed  by  such  a  weight 
of  calamity.  Compare,  for  instance,  the  blow  which  the  Car- 
thaginians received  in  the  sea-fight  at  the  Agates  Islands,  a 
blow  which  made  them  evacuate  Sicily  and  Sardinia  and  allow 
themselves  to  be  burdened  with  indemnity  and  tribute;  com- 
pare again  the  defeat  in  Africa,  by  which  Hannibal  himself 
was  subsequently  crushed.  In  no  respect  are  they  comparable 
with  Cannae,  except  because  they  were  borne  with  less  courage. 

Marcus  Furius  Philus  and  Manius  Pomponius,  the  prae- 
tors, summoned  the  senate  to  meet  in  the  Hall  of  Hostilius, 
to  deliberate  about  the  defence  of  Rome.  They  felt,  no  doubt, 
that  now  that  our  armies  had  perished,  the  enemy  would  ad- 
vance to  attack  the  city,  the  only  warlike  operation  indeed 
that  remained.  In  the  face  of  calamities  as  mysterious  as  they 
were  overwhelming,  they  could  not  even  so  much  as  form 
a  definite  plan ;  their  ears  were  deafened  with  the  cries  of  wail- 
ing women,  for  as  nothing  had  been  published,  the  living 
1  That  is,  at  Canusium. — D.  O. 


346  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

and  the  dead  were  indiscriminately  bewailed  in  almost  every 
house.  It  was  the  opinion  of  Quintus  Fabius  Maximus  that 
some  light  horsemen  should  be  sent  along  the  Appian  and 
Latin  roads  to  question  any  whom  they  might  meet — and  cer- 
tainly stragglers  from  the  rout  would  be  found  in  all  direc- 
tions— what  had  happened  to  the  consuls  and  their  armies, 
and,  if  Heaven  in  pity  for  the  empire  had  left  some  remnant 
of  the  Roman  nation,  where  these  forces  were ;  where  Hanni- 
bal had  gone  after  the  battle,  what  he  meditated,  what  he  was 
doing  and  likely  to  do?  They  must  have  young  and  energetic 
men  to  discover  these  facts;  the  duty  of  the  senators  them- 
selves— for  there  were  but  very  few  magistrates  in  the  city — 
would  be  to  stop  the  confusion  and  the  alarm  at  home;  to 
forbid  the  matrons  from  appearing  in  public,  and  to  compel 
them  to  keep  themselves  each  in  her  own  house;  to  prohibit 
loud  lamentations  for  the  dead,  to  enforce  silence  throughout 
the  city,  to  see  that  all  who  brought  news  were  taken  to  the 
praetors,  to  wait  at  home  for  the  bearer  of  tidings  that  affected 
themselves,  and  to  set  sentinels  at  the  gates  who  were  to  for- 
bid all  egress  and  make  men  see  that  their  only  hope  of  saving 
their  own  lives  lay  in  the  safety  of  Rome  and  its  walls.  The 
tumult  once  hushed,  the  senators  should  be  summoned  once 
more  to  the  house  and  consulted  as  to  the  defence  of  the  city. 

This  motion  was  passed  unanimously  and  without  discus- 
sion. The  crowd  was  forced  by  the  magistrates  to  leave  the 
forum,  and  the  senators  separated  to  quiet  the  uproar;  not 
till  then  did  a  despatch  from  the  consul  Caius  Terentius  arrive. 
Lucius  ^Emilius  and  his  army,  it  said,  had  perished;  the 
writer  himself  was  at  Canusium,  gathering  the  relics  of  this 
terrible  disaster,  like  the  salvage  from  a  shipwreck;  he  had 
nearly  ten  thousand  men  without  discipline  or  organization. 
Hannibal  was  quiet  at  Cannae,  trafficking  about  the  ransoms 
of  the  prisoners  and  the  other  booty  in  anything  but  the 
spirit  of  a  conqueror,  in  anything  but  the  fashion  of  a  great 
general. 

Then  the  names  of  the  dead  were  communicated  to  their 
families.  So  full  was  the  city  of  lamentation  that  the  yearly 
festival  of  Ceres  was  dropped.  It  was  not  lawful  for  a  mourner 
to  keep  it,  and  there  was  not  at  that  time  a  single  matron 
who  was  not  a  mourner.  In  the  fear  that  for  this  same  reason 
other  sacred  rites,  public  or  private,  might  be  neglected,  a 
decree  of  the  senate  limited  the  mourning  to  thirty  days.  No 
sooner  had  the  uproar  in  the  city  been  quieted,  and  the  senate 
again  summoned  to  their  chamber,  than  there  came  a  despatch 
from  Lucius  Otacilius,  pro-praetor,  to  the  effect  that  King 


B.  C.  216]  RECRUITING  THE   ARMY  347 

Hiero's  dominions  were  being  ravaged  by  a  Carthaginian 
fleet;  that  the  king  had  begged  his  help,  and  that  he  was  in- 
tending to  give  it,  when  news  came  that  another  fleet  was 
stationed  off  the  Agates,  ready  equipped  to  attack  Lilybaeum 
and  another  of  the  provinces  of  Rome,  the  moment  the  Car- 
thaginians should  find  that  he  had  gone  to  protect  the  Syra- 
cusan  coast.  A  fleet,  therefore,  was  wanted  if  they  meant  to 
shield  their  ally  King  Hiero  of  Sicily. 

When  the  despatches  from  the  consul  and  the  praetor  had 
been  read,  they  resolved  that  Marcus  Claudius,  who  was  in 
command  of  the  fleet  stationed  at  Ostia,  should  be  sent  to  the 
army  at  Canusium,  with  a  letter  of  instructions  to  the  consul 
that  at  the  first  opportunity,  as  far  as  it  could  be  done  with  ad- 
vantage to  the  state,  he  should  come  to  Rome.  The  College 
of  the  Ten  were  ordered  to  consult  the  books,  and  Quintus 
Fabius  Pictor  was  sent  to  the  oracle  at  Delphi  to  inquire  what 
form  of  prayer  and  supplication  might  propitiate  the  gods, 
and  what  was  to  be  the  end  of  all  these  fearful  disasters.  Mean- 
while, in  obedience  to  the  books  of  fate,  some  unusual  sacrifices 
were  offered.  Among  them  were  a  man  and  a  woman  of 
Gaul,  and  a  man  and  a  woman  of  Greece,  who  were  buried 
alive  in  the  Ox-market  in  a  stone-vaulted  chamber,  not  then 
for  the  first  time  polluted  by  what  Roman  feeling  utterly 
abhorred,  human  sacrifice. 

The  gods  having  been,  as  they  thought,  duly  propitiated, 
Marcus  Claudius  sent  from  Ostia  to  Rome  for  the  defence  of 
the  city  fifteen  hundred  soldiers  whom  he  had  with  him,  en- 
listed for  service  in  the  fleet.  He  then  sent  on  the  naval  (i.  e., 
the  third)  legion  to  Sidicinum,  and  handing  over  the  fleet  to 
his  colleague,  Marcus  Furius  Philus,  hastened,  a  few  days 
afterward,  by  forced  marches  to  Canusium.  After  this  Marcus 
Junius  was  named  dictator,  and  Titus  Sempronius  master  of 
the  horse,  by  the  authority  of  the  senate,  and  these  proclaimed 
a  levy,  and  enrolled  all  of  seventeen  years  of  age  and  upward, 
and  some  yet  younger.  Four  legions  and  a  thousand  cavalry 
were  thus  raised.  They  also  sent  to  the  allies  and  to  the  Latin 
nation  for  soldiers  to  be  enlisted  according  to  the  treaty  obli- 
gations. Armour,  weapons,  and  other  necessaries  were  or- 
dered to  be  in  readiness,  and  old  trophies  won  from  enemies 
were  taken  down  from  the  temples  and  colonnades.  The 
scarcity  of  freemen  and  the  pressure  of  necessity  suggested  a 
new  kind  of  levy.  Eight  thousand  able-bodied  young  men 
from  among  the  slaves,  after  the  question  had  been  put  indi- 
vidually whether  they  were  willing  to  serve,  were  purchased 
and  armed  at  the  public  cost.  These  troops  had  this  to  recom- 


348  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

mend  them,  that  they  rendered  it  possible  to  ransom  prisoners 
at  a  less  cost. 

Hannibal,  after  his  great  success  at  Cannae,  was  bent  on 
schemes  which  suited  a  conqueror  rather  than  one  who  had 
yet  a  war  to  wage.  The  prisoners  were  brought  out  and  classi- 
fied; the  allies,  as  he  had  done  before  at  Trebia  and  Lake 
Trasumennus,  he  dismissed  with  some  kind  words.  The 
Romans,  too,  he  addressed,  as  he  had  never  done  before,  in 
quite  gentle  terms ;  he  had  no  deadly  feud,  he  said,  with  Rome ; 
he  was  fighting  for  freedom  and  empire.  His  fathers  had 
yielded  to  the  valour  of  Rome;  he  was  now  doing  his  utmost 
that  Rome  should  yield  in  turn  to  his  own  valour  and  good 
fortune.  He  would  therefore  give  the  prisoners  an  oppor- 
tunity of  ransoming  themselves;  the  sum  would  be  five  hun- 
dred "  chariot "  pieces  for  each  horseman,  three  hundred  for 
each  foot-soldier,  one  hundred  for  each  slave.  The  price  put 
on  the  horsemen  was  somewhat  larger  than  that  which  had 
been  agreed  upon  when  they  surrendered,  but  they  joyfully 
accepted  any  kind  of  terms  which  permitted  them  to  treat. 
It  was  resolved  that  they  should  themselves  elect  ten  deputies, 
who  were  to  go  to  the  senate  at  Rome.  No  security  was 
taken  for  their  good  faith,  except  an  oath  that  they  would 
return.  One  Carthalo,  a  noble  of  Carthage,  was  sent  with 
them,  bearing  conditions  of  peace,  if  there  should  chance 
to  be  any  inclination  in  that  direction.  After  they  had  left 
the  camp,  one  of  their  number,  a  man  who  had  none  of  a 
Roman's  temper,  pretending  that  he  had  forgotten  something, 
returned  to  the  camp,  so  as  to  acquit  himself  of  his  oath,  and 
before  night  overtook  his  companions.  As  soon  as  it  was  an- 
nounced that  they  were  on  their  way  to  Rome,  a  lictor  was 
sent  to  meet  Carthalo  with  a  message  that  he  was  to  quit 
Roman  territory  before  nightfall. 

The  dictator  allowed  the  delegates  of  the  prisoners  to  ad- 
dress the  senate.  Their  leader,  Marcus  Junius,  spoke  as  fol- 
lows :  "  No  country,  senators,  as  we  all  well  know,  has  ever 
held  prisoners  cheaper  than  has  our  own;  yet  unless  we  are 
too  well  satisfied  with  our  own  case,  no  prisoners  have  ever 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy  who  were  less  deserving 
of  neglect  than  we.  We  did  not  surrender  our  arms  on  the 
field  of  battle  from  fear,  but  after  prolonging  our  resistance 
almost  into  the  night,  when  we  stood  upon  heaps  of  dead,  we 
retreated  to  our  camp.  During  the  remainder  of  that  day  and 
during  the  night  that  followed,  worn  out  as  we  were  with  toil 
and  wounds,  we  defended  our  intrenchments ;  the  next  day, 
hemmed  in  by  the  victorious  army,  and  shut  off  from  water, 


B.  C.  216]       DELEGATES   FROM   THE    PRISONERS  349 

seeing  no  hope  of  cutting  a  way  through  the  dense  ranks  of 
the  foe,  and  thinking  it  no  shame  that  with  fifty  thousand  men 
slain  in  the  field  there  should  be  some  remnant  of  Roman 
soldiers  from  the  fight  of  Cannae,  then  at  last  we  agreed  upon 
a  price  at  which  we  might  be  ransomed  and  released,  and 
surrendered  the  arms  which  could  no  longer  give  deliverance. 
We  had  heard  that  your  ancestors  ransomed  themselves  from 
the  Gauls  for  gold,  and  that  your  fathers,  sternly  set  as  they 
were  against  all  conditions  of  peace,  yet  sent  envoys  to  Taren- 
tum  to  treat  for  the  ransoming  of  prisoners.  Yet  the  disgrace 
of  our  battle  at  Allia  with  the  Gauls,  and  of  our  battle  at 
Heraclea  with  Pyrrhus,  was  not  so  much  in  the  loss  as  in 
the  panic  and  flight  of  either  day.  The  plains  of  Cannae  are 
covered  with  heaps  of  Roman  dead,  and  we  survive  only  be- 
cause the  enemy  had  not  sword  or  strength  to  slaughter  any 
more.  There  are  some,  too,  among  us  who  were  not  even  in 
the  battle,  but  were  left  to  guard  the  camp,  and  came  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy  when  the  camp  was  surrendered.  I 
do  not  envy  the  fortune  or  position  of  any  fellow-countryman 
or  comrade,  nor  would  I  wish  to  exalt  myself  by  depreciating 
others;  but — unless  there  is  some  prize  for  speed  of  foot  and 
for  running — they  who  fled,  without  arms  for  the  most  part, 
from  the  battle,  nor  stopped  till  they  reached  Canusium  or 
Venusia,  can  not  justly  put  themselves  above  us,  or  boast  that 
the  commonwealth  finds  more  help  in  them  than  in  us.  But 
you  will  employ  both  them  (good  and  gallant  soldiers,  too) 
and  us,  who  will  be  yet  more  eager  to  serve  our  country,  see- 
ing that  it  is  by  your  kindness  that  we  shall  have  been  ran- 
somed and  restored  to  that  country.  You  are  levying  troops 
from  every  age  and  class;  I  hear  that  eight  thousand  slaves 
are  being  armed.  There  is  the  same  number  of  us,  and  we 
can  be  ransomed  at  a  cost  no  greater  than  that  for  which 
they  are  bought.  Were  I  to  compare  our  worth  with  theirs, 
I  should  wrong  the  name  of  Rome.  And  there  is  another 
point,  senators,  which  I  think  you  ought  to  consider  in  de- 
ciding such  a  matter,  should  you  incline  to  the  sterner  course, 
and  do  it  without  regard  for  any  deserving  of  ours,  and  that 
is,  who  is  the  enemy  to  whom  you  leave  us?  Is  it  to  a  Pyrrhus 
who  treated  his  prisoners  as  guests?  Or  is  it  to  a  barbarian, 
a  Carthaginian,  of  whom  one  can  scarcely  imagine  whether 
he  be  more  rapacious  or  more  cruel?  Could  you  see  the 
chains,  the  squalor,  the  hideous  condition  of  your  country- 
men, verily  the  sight  would  not  move  you  less  than  if,  on  the 
other  side,  you  looked  on  your  slaughtered  legions  lying  dead 
on  the  plains  of  Cannae.  You  may  behold  the  anxiety  and 


350  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

the  tears  of  the  kinsmen  who  stand  in  the  porch  of  your  house 
and  await  your  answer.  If  they  are  so  anxious,  so  troubled 
for  us  and  for  those  who  are  absent,  what,  think  you,  are  the 
thoughts  of  those  whose  life  and  liberty  are  at  stake?  Good 
God!  if  Hannibal  should  choose  to  belie  his  own  nature,  and 
be  merciful  to  us,  yet  we  could  not  think  our  lives  worth  any- 
thing to  us,  when  you  have  thought  us  unworthy  to  be  ran- 
somed. In  former  days  there  returned  to  Rome  certain  pris- 
oners whom  Pyrrhus  sent  back  without  ransom;  but  they 
returned  with  envoys,  taken  from  the  first  men  in  the  state, 
who  had  been  sent  to  ransom  themselves.  Can  I  return  to  my 
country,  I,  a  citizen,  not  valued  at  three  hundred  pieces  of 
money?1  Every  one  has  his  own  feelings,  senators.  That 
my  life  and  person  are  in  peril,  I  know,  but  I  am  more  trou- 
bled by  the  peril  to  my  character,  if  we  are  to  depart  con- 
demned and  repulsed  by  you;  for  that  you  spared  the  money 
men  will  never  believe." 

As  he  ended,  there  rose  from  the  crowd  in  the  place  of 
assembly  a  doleful  cry.  They  stretched  out  their  hands  to- 
ward the  senate-house,  praying  that  their  children,  brothers, 
kinsmen  might  be  restored  to  them.  Mingled  with  the  crowd 
of  men  were  many  women,  brought  thither  by  fear  and  af- 
fection. All  strangers  were  ordered  to  withdraw,  and  the 
debate  in  the  senate  began.  There  was  great  diversity  of 
opinion;  some  thought  that  the  prisoners  should  be  ransomed 
at  the  cost  of  the  state;  others  that  no  public  expense  should 
be  incurred,  but  that  it  should  not  be  forbidden  to  ransom 
them  at  the  expense  of  private  persons ;  that  any  one  who 
could  not  command  the  money  at  once,  might  have  it  lent  to 
him  from  the  treasury,  giving  security  to  the  state  by  bonds- 
men and  mortgages.  At  last  Titus  Manlius  Torquatus,  who 
was  old-fashioned,  and,  some  thought,  overstern  in  his  sever- 
ity, spoke,  it  is  said,  as  follows :  "  If  the  envoys  had  been  con- 
tent with  demanding  on  behalf  of  those  who  are  in  the  ene- 
my's hands  that  they  should  be  ransomed,  I  should  have 
briefly  stated  my  opinion,  without  a  word  of  reproach  against 
any  one  of  them.  For  surely  you  only  needed  to  be  reminded 
that  you  must  keep  to  the  practice  handed  down  from  our 
fathers  for  the  setting  an  example  necessary  to  preserve  mili- 
tary discipline.  As  it  is,  they  have  almost  boasted  that  they 
surrendered  to  the  enemy,  and  claimed  it  as  their  right  that 
they  should  be  preferred  not  only  to  the  prisoners  taken  on 
the  field,  but  even  to  those  who  made  their  way  to  Canusium 
and  Venusia,  and  to  the  consul  Terentius  Varro  himself;  and 

1  About  fifty  dollars. 


B.  c.  216]       MANLIUS   ADDRESSES  THE   SENATE  351 

therefore  I  shall  not  let  you,  senators,  remain  in  ignorance 
of  anything  that  was  done  there.  I  would  that  what  I  am 
about  to  say  before  you  I  was  saying  at  Canusium  before  the 
army  itself,  the  best  possible  witness  to  each  man's  bravery 
or  cowardice;  or  that  at  least  Publius  Sempronius  himself 
was  here,  for,  had  they  taken  him  for  their  leader,  they  would 
this  day  be  soldiers  in  the  camp  of  Rome,  not  prisoners  in 
the  enemy's  hand.  The  enemy  was  wearied  with  fighting,  or 
exhilarated  with  victory ;  many  of  them  had  actually  gone 
back  to  their  camp;  they  had  the  whole  night  for  breaking 
away,  and  seven  thousand  armed  men  could  have  broken 
away  even  through  a  dense  array  of  the  enemy;  yet  they 
neither  endeavoured  to  do  this  of  themselves,  nor  chose  to 
follow  the  lead  of  another.  Nearly  all  night  long  did  Publius 
Sempronius  Tuditanus  warn  them  and  urge  them  without 
ceasing  to  follow  him  while  the  enemy  around  the  camp  was 
still  weak,  while  quiet  and  silence  still  prevailed,  while  dark- 
ness would  shelter  the  attempt.  Before  dawn,  he  said,  they 
might  reach  a  place  of  safety — the  cities  of  our  allies.  If,  as 
Publius  Decius,1  tribune  of  the  soldiers,  spake  in  Samnium 
in  the  days  of  our  grandfathers;  if,  as  in  the  first  Punic  war, 
when  we  ourselves  were  young  men,  Calpurnius  Flamma,2 
spake  to  three  hundred  volunteers  whom  he  was  leading  to 
capture  a  height  situated  in  the  very  midst  of  the  foe,  '  Let  us 
die,  comrades,  and  deliver  the  blockaded  legions  from  their 
peril  by  our  death ' — if,  I  say,  Publius  Sempronius  had  thus 
spoken,  I  should  take  them  neither  for  men  nor  Romans  if  he 
had  found  no  companions  in  his  valour.  But  he  shows  you 

1  P.  Decius  Mus  served  as  tribune  of  the  soldiers  in  the  Samnite  war, 
343  B.C.  In  the  mountain  passes  of  Samnium  the  Roman  consul  had 
allowed  his  army  to  be  surrounded  in  a  valley  by  the  enemy.  Destruc- 
tion seemed  inevitable  ;  when  Decius  offered,  with  the  hastati  and  prin- 
cipes  of  the  legion,  to  seize  a  height  which  commanded  the  way  by  which 
the  Samnites  were  hastening  down  to  attack  the  Roman  army.  Here  he 
maintained  himself  gallantly,  while  the  Roman  army  gained  the  summit 
of  the  mountain.  In  the  ensuing  night  he  persuaded  his  soldiers  to  follow 
him  and  break  through  the  Samnites  who  were  encamped  around  him. 
Succeeding  in  this  brave  attempt,  he  joined  the  consul  and  induced  him 
to  make  an  immediate  attack  upon  the  enemy,  which  resulted  in  a  bril- 
liant victory.  (See  Livy  vii,  34.)  This  Decius  is  the  same  who  gave  his 
life,  with  heroic  devotion,  as  the  price  of  Roman  victory  in  the  great  Latin 
war,  B.  c.  340. — CHASE'S  LIVY. 

*  Calpurnius  Flamma  was  a  tribune  of  the  soldiers  in  the  first  Punic 
war.  A  Roman  consular  army  in  Sicily  having  been  led  into  a  defile 
where  it  found  itself  beset  by  the  Carthaginians  on  the  surrounding 
heights,  Calpurnius  offered  to  draw  the  fire  of  the  enemy  by  occupying  a 
hill  in  the  pass,  with  the  prospect  of  certain  death  for  himself  and  the 
soldiers  who  should  follow  him.  While  the  Carthaginians  were  fighting 
with  him  the  Roman  army  escaped. — CHASE'S  LIVY. 


352  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  ii6 

a  way  that  leads  to  safety  quite  as  much  as  to  glory ;  he  seeks 
to  bring  you  back  to  your  country,  to  kinsfolk,  wives,  and 
children.  You  have  not  the  courage  to  be  saved.  What 
would  you  do  if  you  had  to  die  for  your  country?  Fifty  thou- 
sand countrymen  and  allies  lie  about  you  slain  that  very  day. 
If  so  many  examples  of  valour  stir  you  not,  nothing  ever 
will  stir  you.  If  such  a  fearful  slaughter  does  not  make  life 
seem  worthless  to  you,  nothing  ever  will  make  it.  Are  you 
free  citizens,  and  possessed  of  full  rights?  You  may  hold 
your  country  dear.  Yes,  you  may  hold  it  dear,  while  it  is  your 
country  and  you  its  citizens.  Too  late  you  hold  it  dear,  your 
rights  forfeited,  your  citizenship  lost,  yourselves  turned  into 
Carthaginian  slaves.  Are  you  to  return  at  the  cost  of  a  ran- 
som to  the  position  which  only  cowardice  and  wickedness 
made  you  quit?  To  Publius  Sempronius  when  he  bade  you 
arm  yourselves  and  follow  him,  you  would  not  listen;  you 
listened  to  Hannibal  when  he  bade  you  betray  your  camp  and 
deliver  up  your  arms.  As  it  is,  I  only  charge  them  with  cow- 
ardice when  I  might  charge  them  with  crime.  Not  only  did 
they  refuse  to  follow  Sempronius  when  he  gave  them  honour- 
able advice,  but  they  did  their  best  to  obstruct  and  keep  him 
back  till  these  gallant  men  drew  their  swords  and  chased  the 
cowards  away.  I  say  that  Sempronius  had  to  force  his  way 
first  through  the  ranks  of  his  countrymen,  then  through  the 
ranks  of  the  foe.  Is  our  country  to  care  for  citizens  of  such 
sort  that,  if  all  others  had  been  like  them,  she  could  not  count 
on  a  single  one  of  those  who  fought  at  Cannae  as  a  citizen  in- 
deed? Out  of  seven  thousand  armed  men  there  were  six  hun- 
dred who  dared  to  cut  their  way  out,  who  returned  to  their 
country  with  their  arms  and  their  freedom;  and  to  these  six 
hundred  the  enemy  made  no  resistance.  How  absolutely  safe 
would  have  been  the  path,  think  you,  to  a  body  consisting  of 
nearly  two  legions!  And  you  would  have  to-day  at  Canusium 
twenty  thousand  armed  men,  gallant  and  loyal.  As  it  is,  how 
can  these  men  be  good  and  loyal  citizens?  Brave  they  do  not 
even  themselves  claim  to  be;  unless,  perhaps,  some  one  can 
believe  that  men  who  sought  to  prevent  a  sally,  nevertheless 
looked  with  favour  on  those  who  sallied,  and  that  they  do  not 
grudge  them  the  deliverance  and  the  glory  that  their  valour 
has  won  for  them,  knowing  all  the  while  that  their  own  fear  and 
cowardice  have  brought  on  them  an  ignominious  servitude. 
They  chose  to  hide  in  their  tents  waiting  at  once  for  the  light 
and  the  enemy,  rather  than  to  sally  forth  in  the  silence  of  night. 
But,  you  will  say,  they  had  not  the  courage  to  sally  from  the 
camp,  yet  they  had  courage  enough  to  defend  their  camp  brave- 


B.  c.  216]  THE   RANSOM   REFUSED 

ly.  Blockaded,  I  suppose,  night  and  day,  they  defended  the 
rampart  with  their  arms,  and  themselves  behind  the  rampart. 
At  last,  after  reaching  the  extremity  of  daring  and  suffering, 
lacking  everything  to  support  life,  their  famine-stricken  limbs 
refusing  to  bear  the  weight  of  their  arms,  they  yielded  to  the 
necessities  of  nature  rather  than  to  arms.  At  daybreak  the 
enemy  approached  the  rampart;  before  eight  o'clock,  without 
venturing  on  any  conflict,  they  surrendered  their  arms  and 
themselves.  Here,  mark  you,  was  their  two  days'  soldiership. 
When  they  ought  to  have  stood  on  the  field  and  fought,  they 
fled  to  the  camp ;  when  they  ought  to  have  fought  before  their 
rampart,  they  surrendered;  in  field  and  camp  useless  alike. 
And  is  it  you  that  I  am  to  ransom?  When  it  is  your  duty 
to  sally  out  of  the  camp,  you  hesitate  and  tarry;  when  you 
are  bound  to  stay  and  defend  the  camp,  you  surrender  camp 
and  arms  and  yourselves  to  the  enemy.  I  would  as  soon  think 
of  ransoming  them,  senators,  as  I  would  of  surrendering  to 
Hannibal  the  men  who  cut  their  way  out  of  the  camp  through 
the  midst  of  the  enemy,  and  by  a  supreme  effort  of  valour 
gave  themselves  back  to  their  country." 

Many  of  the  senators  had  near  relatives  among  the  pris- 
oners, but  when  Manlius  had  done  speaking,  in  addition  to 
the  precedent  of  Rome's  immemorial  severity  in  regard  to 
prisoners  came  the  thought  of  the  vast  sum  required.  The 
treasury  must  not  be  exhausted,  for  large  sums  had  already 
been  spent  in  buying  and  arming  slaves,  and  Hannibal,  who 
according  to  all  report  was  in  the  utmost  need,  must  not  be 
enriched.  When  the  sad  answer  came  that  the  prisoners 
were  not  to  be  ransomed,  adding  a  new  grief  to  the  old  in 
the  loss  of  so  many  citizens,  the  people  attended  the  envoys 
to  the  gates  with  many  tears  and  complaints.  One  of  them 
went  to  his  home,  as  having  acquitted  himself  of  his  oath  by 
the  pretence  of  his  return  to  the  camp.  When  this  became 
known  and  reached  the  ears  of  the  senate,  they  unanimously 
voted  that  the  man  should  be  seized  and  taken  under  an  escort  • 
furnished  by  the  state  to  Hannibal. 

There  are  also  other  reports  about  the  prisoners.  It  is  said 
that  ten  came  first.  There  was  some  doubt  in  the  senate 
whether  or  no  they  were  to  be  admitted  into  the  city.  They 
were  admitted  on  the  condition  that  they  were  not  to  have  a 
hearing  in  the  senate.  While  they  tarried  longer  than  any  one 
expected,  three  new  envoys  came,  Lucius  Scribonius,  Caius 
Calpurnius,  and  Lucius  Manlius.  Then  at  last,  on  the  motion 
of  Scribonius,  a  tribune  of  the  people,  the  question  was  raised 
of  ransoming  the  prisoners,  and  the  senate  decided  against  it. 
23 


LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

Upon  this  the  three  new  envoys  returned  to  Hannibal,  but  the 
old  envoys  remained  on  the  understanding  that  having  re- 
turned to  Hannibal  for  the  purpose  of  reviewing  the  names  of 
the  prisoners,  they  were  released  from  their  obligation.  There 
was  a  fierce  debate  in  the  senate  about  them,  and  the  pro- 
posal to  give  them  up  was  lost  by  a  few  votes.  But  as  soon 
as  new  censors  came  into  office,  so  crushed  were  they  under 
every  mark  of  censure  and  degradation,  that  some  of  them 
at  once  committed  suicide,  and  the  rest  for  the  remainder  of 
their  lives  shunned  not  merely  the  forum,  but  almost  the  very 
light  of  day  and  the  public  streets.  We  may  wonder  why  our 
authorities  differ  so  much  from  each  other,  more  easily  than 
to  determine  what  is  true. 

How  greatly  this  disaster  surpassed  all  previous  disasters 
is  clearly  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  loyalty  of  our  allies,  stead- 
fast until  that  day,  now  began  to  waver,  simply,  indeed,  be- 
cause they  despaired  of  the  maintenance  of  our  empire.  The 
following  tribes  revolted  to  the  Carthaginians:  the  Atellani, 
the  Calatini,  some  of  the  Apulians,  all  the  Samnites  except 
the  Pentri,  all  the  Bruttii  and  the  Lucani.  To  these  must  be 
added  the  Uzentini,  nearly  all  the  Greek  cities  of  the  coast, 
Tarentum,  Metapontum,  Crotona,  and  Locri,  and  the  whole 
of  Cisalpine  Gaul.1  Yet  all  these  disasters  and  defections  never 
made  the  Romans  so  much  as  mention  peace,  either  before 
the  consul  returned  to  Rome,  or  after  his  return  had  renewed 
the  remembrance  of  the  terrible  loss  sustained.  On  this  latter 
occasion,  indeed,  such  was  the  high  spirit  of  the  country,  that 
when  the  consul  returned  after  this  great  disaster  of  which 
he  had  himself  been  the  chief  cause,  all  classes  went  in  crowds 
to  meet  him,  and  he  was  publicly  thanked  because  he  had  not 
despaired  of  the  commonwealth.  Had  he  been  a  Carthaginian 
general,  they  knew  that  there  was  no  torture  which  he  would 
not  have  had  to  suffer. 

1  These  included  the  greater  part  of  southern  and  northern  Italy.  All 
that  remained  were  the  Latins,  the  Roman  colonies,  and  a  few  allied 
cities  and  tribes. — D.  O. 


BOOK  XXIII 

THE   SECOND   PUNIC   WAR    (CONTINUED) 

HANNIBAL,  immediately  after  the  battle  of  Cannae  and 
the  capture  and  plunder  of  the  enemy's  camp,  had 
moved  from  Apulia  into  Samnium.  One  Statius  Tre- 
bius  had  invited  him  into  the  country  of  the  Hirpini, 
promising  to  put  Compsa  into  his  hands.  Trebius  was  a  na- 
tive of  Compsa,1  and  ranked  as  a  noble  among  his  fellow-citi- 
zens, but  he  had  formidable  opponents  in  the  faction  of  the 
Mopsii,2  a  family  of  influence  through  the  favour  of  Rome. 
After  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Cannae,  when  Trebius  had 
begun  to  talk  commonly  of  Hannibal's  coming,  the  Mopsii 
quitted  the  city,  and  the  place  was  at  once  surrendered  to  the 
Carthaginians  and  a  garrison  admitted.  There  Hannibal  left 
all  his  booty  and  his  baggage;  then  dividing  his  army,  he 
instructed  Mago  to  accept  the  alliance  of  all  the  towns  in  that 
district  which  were  revolting  from  Rome,  and  to  force  into 
revolt  such  as  refused,  while  he  himself  marched  through 
Campania  toward  the  Lower  Sea  3  with  the  intention  of  attack- 
ing Naples,  and  so  to  possess  himself  of  a  city  on  the  coast. 

On  entering  Neapolitan  territory  he  posted  some  of  his 
Numidians  in  ambuscade  wherever  he  conveniently  could  (and 
there  are  many  deep  lanes  and  unseen  hollows),  others  he 
ordered  to  ride  up  to  the  city  gates,  displaying  in  their  front 
the  plunder  driven  out  of  the  fields.  As  they  seemed  to  be 
neither  numerous  nor  disciplined,  a  troop  of  cavalry  charged 
them,  and  then,  as  they  designedly  retreated,  was  drawn  into, 
an  ambuscade  and  surrounded.  Not  a  man  would  have  es- 

1  Modern  Conza.— D.  O. 

*  It  was  the  aristocratic  faction  in  the  Italian  cities  that  had  been  fos- 
tered by  and  were  faithful  to  Rome.  Hannibal  was  naturally  compelled 
to  look  to  the  popular  party  and  to  a  few  disaffected  nobles.  This  same 
political  line  was  drawn  throughout  all  classical  antiquity,  and  Rome's 
policy  stood  her  in  good  stead  in  the  present  emergency. — D.  O. 

1  That  part  of  the  Mediterranean  bounded  by  Italy,  Sicily,  Sardinia, 
and  Corsica. — D.  O. 

355 


356  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

caped  had  not  the  proximity  of  the  sea  and  some  vessels  near 
the  shore,  fishing  boats  for  the  most  part,  afforded  an  escape 
to  such  as  could  swim.  But,  as  it  was,  some  young  nobles 
were  taken  or  slain  in  the  skirmish,  among  them  Hegeas, 
the  commander  of  the  troop,  who  fell  as  he  too  rashly  pur- 
sued the  retiring  foe.  The  sight  of  walls  by  no  means  easy  of 
assault  deterred  the  Carthaginians  from  attacking  the  town. 

Hannibal  next  directed  his  march  toward  Capua,  a  city 
demoralized  by  long  prosperity  and  the  bounty  of  nature,  and, 
most  of  all,  where  all  was  corruption,  by  the  license  of  a  popu- 
lace that  enjoyed  a  freedom  totally  without  restraint.  A  cer- 
tain Pacuvius  Calavius  had  rendered  the  town  senate  servilely 
submissive  to  himself  and  to  the  commons.  The  man  was  a 
noble  as  well  as  a  popular  favourite,  but  he  had  gained  his 
influence  by  base  intrigues.  In  the  year  of  our  disaster  at 
Trasumennus  he  held,  as  it  chanced,  the  highest  office.  Con- 
vinced that  the  populace,  which  had  long  hated  the  senate, 
would  seize  the  opportunity  of  revolution  to  venture  on  an 
outrageous  crime,  that,  should  Hannibal  march  into  the  neigh- 
bourhood with  a  victorious  army,  it  would  massacre  the  sena- 
tors and  betray  Capua  to  the  Carthaginians,  this  man,  who, 
bad  as  he  was,  was  not  wholly  and  utterly  depraved,  and  would 
rather  rule  in  a  flourishing  than  in  a  ruined  state,  and  was 
assured  that  no  state  deprived  of  its  public  council  could  flour- 
ish, resorted  to  a  policy,  the  design  of  which  was,  while  retain- 
ing a  senate,  to  make  it  subservient  to  himself  and  to  the 
commons. 

He  summoned  the  senate,  and  began  by  telling  them 
that,  were  it  not  necessary,  any  scheme  of  revolt  from  the 
Romans  would  be  anything  but  acceptable  to  him,  as  he  him- 
self had  children  by  the  daughter  of  Appius  Claudius,  and  had 
given  his  only  daughter  in  marriage  to  Marcus  Livius  at 
Rome.  "  But,"  he  added,  "  a  far  more  serious  and  formidable 
crisis  is  now  impending.  The  populace  are  not  simply  think- 
ing of  a  revolt  which  will  sweep  the  senate  out  of  the  city, 
but  are  bent  on  handing  over  to  Hannibal  and  the  Cartha- 
ginians a  city  stripped  of  its  leaders  by  a  massacre  of  every 
senator.  I  wish  to  rescue  you  from  this  peril,  if  only  you  will 
let  me,  and,  forgetting  past  political  strifes,  trust  me."  When 
they  all  yielded  under  the  constraint  of  terror,  "  I  will  confine 
you,"  he  said,  "  in  the  senate-house,  and  by  expressing  my 
approval  of  designs  which  it  would  be  vain  for  me  to  oppose, 
just  as  if  I  were  myself  an  accomplice  in  the  meditated  crime, 
I  will  find  a  way  of  safety  for  you.  Take  for  this  my  word 
any  guarantee  you  please."  Such  guarantee  having  been 


B.  C.  216]    PACUVIUS   AND   THE   CAPUAN   SENATE  357 

given,  he  went  out,  ordering  the  senate-house  to  be  closed, 
and  leaving  a  military  guard  at  the  entrance  so  that  no  one 
could  enter  or  quit  the  chamber  without  his  permission. 

Then  he  summoned  the  townsfolk  to  an  assembly.  "  You 
have  often  wished,  Campanians,"  he  said,  "  that  you  had  the 
power  of  inflicting  punishment  on  a  wicked  and  infamous 
senate.  That  power  you  now  have,  without  tumultuously 
storming,  with  the  utmost  peril  to  yourselves,  the  houses  of 
individual  citizens,  guarded,  as  they  are,  by  a  force  of  clients 
or  of  slaves;  you  have  it  in  safe  and  uncontrolled  possession. 
Take  them,  as  they  are,  shut  up,  all  of  them,  in  the  senate- 
house,  alone,  unarmed.  But  you  must  not  do  anything  hur- 
riedly or  rashly.  You  shall  have  from  me  the  right  to  pro- 
nounce sentence  of  life  and  death  on  them,  one  by  one,  so 
that  each  may  pay  the  penalty  he  has  deserved.  But,  above 
all  things,  you  ought  to  indulge  your  resentment  only  on  the 
condition  of  postponing  it  to  your  safety  and  your  interest. 
Of  course  you  hate,  so  I  suppose,  these  senators,  yet  do  not 
wish  to  be  wholly  without  a  senate,  as  you  must  have  either 
a  king,  detestable  alternative,  or  else,  as  the  only  deliberative 
assembly  for  a  free  state,  a  senate.  Consequently,  you  must 
do  two  things  at  once.  You  must  rid  yourselves  of  the  old 
senate  and  elect  a  new  one.  I  will  order  the  senators  to  be 
summoned  singly,  and  I  will  take  your  opinions  as  to  their 
fate.  What  you  decide  in  each  case  shall  be  carried  out; 
but  you  must  elect  as  a  new  senator  in  each  one's  room  a 
man  of  firmness  and  energy  before  you  inflict  punishment  on 
the  guilty." 

Pacuvius  then  sat  down,  and,  throwing  the  names  into  an 
urn,  ordered  the  name  which  was  first  drawn  by  lot  to  be 
called  out,  and  the  man  himself  to  be  led  out  of  the  senate- 
house.  As  soon  as  the  name  was  heard,  every  one  on  his  own 
account  exclaimed  that  the  man  was  bad  and  vile  and  deserved 
punishment.  Thereupon  Pacuvius  said:  "  I  see  what  the  opin- 
ion is  in  this  case.  Choose,  then,  in  the  place  of  a  bad  and 
vile  man  a  good  and  upright  senator." 

At  first  there  was  a  silence.  They  were  at  a  loss  to  suggest 
a  better  man.  Then  when  somebody,  throwing  off  his  diffi- 
dence, suggested  a  name,  there  instantly  began  a  much  louder 
shouting,  some  declaring  that  they  did  not  know  the  man, 
others  alleging  against  him  various  infamies,  or  low  birth  and 
abject  poverty,  or  some  sort  of  disgraceful  occupation  or  trade. 
This  was  repeated  with  more  violence  when  a  second  and  a 
third  senator  was  summoned,  and  it  was  thus  evident  that 
they  disliked  the  man,  but  that  no  one  was  forthcoming  to 


358  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

choose  into  his  place.  For  there  was  no  use  in  naming  the 
same  persons  already  named,  only  to  hear  themselves  insulted, 
and  the  remainder  were  far  more  low-born  and  obscure  than 
those  who  first  occurred  to  men's  thoughts.  And  so  the  crowd 
dispersed,  saying  that  the  evils  best  known  were  always  the 
most  endurable,  and  insisting  on  the  senators  being  released 
from  custody. 

The  senate,  which  was  thus  made  to  owe  their  lives  to 
Pacuvius,  felt  much  more  bound  to  him  than  to  the  commons, 
and  the  man  ruled  by  a  consent  that  was  now  universal,  with- 
out the  help  of  arms.  The  senators,  from  that  time  disre- 
garding their  traditions  of  dignity  and  freedom,  flattered  the 
populace;  they  would  greet  them,  give  them  friendly  invi- 
tations, entertain  them  at  splendid  banquets,  take  up  their 
causes,  range  themselves  on  their  side,  and  insure,  by  empan- 
nelling  favourable  juries,  that  verdict  which  was  the  most  ac- 
ceptable and  likeliest  to  win  popularity  with  the  lowest  class. 
In  fact  all  business  was  now  transacted  in  the  senate  just  as  if 
the  commons  were  there  assembled.  Thus  a  community 
which  had  always  been  inclined  to  luxury,  not  simply  from 
some  defect  in  character,  but  from  an  overflowing  abundance 
of  pleasures  and  the  charm  of  every  delight  which  earth  or 
sea  could  furnish,  became  at  last  so  thoroughly  demoralized 
by  the  indulgence  of  the  leading  citizens  and  the  license 
of  the  populace,  that  sensuality  and  extravagance  passed  all 
bounds. 

To  this  contempt  of  the  laws,  the  magistrates,  and  the  sen- 
ate, there  was  added  now,  after  the  battle  of  Cannae,  scorn  of 
that  for  which  some  respect  had  still  remained,  the  Roman 
power.  One  thing  only  delayed  their  revolt.  An  ancient 
right  of  intermarriage  had  united  many  of  their  great  and 
powerful  families  with  Rome,  and  among  the  many  citizens  that 
served  in  Roman  armies  were  three  hundred  knights,  strong- 
est bond  of  all,  as  being  to  a  man  the  noblest  of  the  Campani- 
ans,  whom  the  Romans  had  picked  out  and  despatched  to 
garrison  the  cities  of  Sicily.  Their  parents  and  kinsfolk  suc- 
ceeded with  difficulty  in  having  an  embassy  sent  to  the  Roman 
consul. 

The  envoys  found  that  the  consul  had  not  yet  started  for 
Canusium,  but  was  still  at  Venusia  with  a  few  half-armed  fol- 
lowers, the  most  pitiable  object  possible  to  good  allies ;  to  the 
arrogant  and  disloyal,  such  as  were  the  Campanians,  equally 
despicable.  The  consul  even  increased  the  contempt  felt  for 
himself  and  his  fortunes  by  too  openly  and  nakedly  exposing 
the  disaster.  When  the  envoys  told  him  that  the  senate  and 


B.  C.  2i6]         ENVOYS   FROM   THE   CAMPANIANS  359 

people  of  Campania  were  grieved  that  any  calamity  should 
have  befallen  the  Romans,  and  began  to  promise  all  things 
needful  for  war,  he  replied :  "When,  men  of  Campania,  you  bid 
us  make  requisitions  on  you  for  whatever  we  want  for  war, 
you  observe  the  usual  form  in  addressing  allies  rather  than 
use  language  suitable  to  our  present  plight.  For  what  has 
been  left  us  at  Cannae  that,  as  those  who  still  possess  some- 
thing of  their  own,  we  could  wish  allies  to  make  up  the  de- 
ficiency? Are  we  to  order  infantry  from  you,  as  though  we 
had  cavalry?  Are  we  to  say  that  we  need  money,  as  if  that 
was  our  only  want?  Fortune  has  left  nothing  to  make  up. 
Our  legions,  our  cavalry,  our  arms,  our  standards,  our  horses, 
our  soldiers,  our  money,  our  supplies,  were  destroyed  utterly 
either  on  the  field  or  in  the  two  camps  which  we  lost  the  next 
day.  So,  men  of  Campania,  it  is  not  for  you  to  help  us  in  war, 
but  almost  to  undertake  war  for  us.  Bethink  yourselves  how, 
when  your  panic-stricken  ancestors  in  days  of  old  were  driven 
within  their  walls  and  were  in  dread  of  the  Sidicine1  as  well  as 
the  Samnite  foe,  we  received  them  into  alliance  and  saved  them 
at  Saticula,2  and  for  nearly  a  hundred  years,  with  varying  for- 
tune, bore  the  brunt  of  a  war  with  the  Samnites  that  was  begun 
on  your  behalf.  Add  to  this  recollection  that,  when  you  were 
in  our  power,  we  gave  you  a  treaty  on  equal  terms,  your  own 
laws ;  finally,  what,  at  any  rate  before  the  disaster  of  Cannae, 
was  the  greatest  of  boons,  we  gave  our  Roman  citizenship  to 
a  large  proportion  of  your  citizens  and  shared  it  with  you. 
And  so,  Campanians,  you  ought  to  regard  this  disaster,  which 
we  have  sustained,  as  common  to  us  both,  and  feel  that  you 
have  to  defend  a  common  fatherland.  It  is  not  with  Samnites 
or  Etruscans  that  we  have  to  do ;  in  that  case  the  empire,  if 
wrested  from  us,  would  still  remain  in  Italy.  The  Carthagin- 
ian foe  drags  with  him  a  soldiery  that  is  not  even  native  to 
Africa,  drags  it  from  the  remotest  regions  of  the  earth,  from 
the  ocean  straits  and  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  a  soldiery  strange 
to  law,  to  compact,  almost  to  human  speech.  Ruthless  and 
savage  as  they  are  by  nature  and  habit,  their  leader  has  him- 
self yet  further  brutalized  them  by  making  bridges  and  bar- 
riers out  of  heaps  of  human  bodies,  and  teaching  them  to  feed 
(I  loathe  to  utter  it)  on  human  flesh.3  That  men  fed  on  food 

1  There  is  some  mistake  here,  as  the  Capuans  had  aided  the  Sidicines 
against  the  Samnites. — D.  O. 

9  The  position  of  the  Roman  camp  in  Samnium  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
first  Samnite  war. — D.  O. 

*  Stories  rife  among  the  vulgar.  Livy  makes  Varro  adopt  them  in  his 
character  of  demagogue. — D.  O. 


360  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

so  horrible,  men  whom  it  would  be  a  sin  even  to  touch,  we 
should  regard  and  own  as  our  masters ;  that  we  should  seek 
our  laws  from  Africa  and  Carthage  and  let  Italy  be  a  province 
of  the  Numidians  and  Moors — who,  if  he  were  so  much  as 
born  in  Italy,  would  not  curse  such  a  destiny?  It  will  be  a 
glorious  thing,  men  of  Campania,  for  an  empire  which  has 
fallen  by  a  Roman  defeat  to  have  been  saved  and  recovered 
by  your  loyalty,  your  might.  Thirty  thousand  infantry,  four 
thousand  cavalry  can,  in  my  belief,  be  raised  from  Campania. 
Already  you  have  money  and  corn  in  abundance.  If  you 
show  a  good  faith  equal  to  your  resources,  Hannibal  will  not 
feel  himself  to  be  a  conqueror  nor  the  Romans  to  have  been 
conquered." 

With  this  speech  of  the  consul  the  envoys  were  dismissed. 
As  they  were  on  their  way  home  one  of  them,  Vibius  Virrius, 
said  that  the  time  was  come  when  the  Campanians  might  not 
only  recover  the  territory  which  the  Romans  had  taken  from 
them  in  past  days,  but  even  possess  themselves  of  the  empire 
of  Italy.  "  We  shall  conclude,"  he  said,  "  a  treaty  with  Han- 
nibal on  what  terms  we  please,  and  there  will  be  no  question 
that  when  the  war  is  over  and  Hannibal  returns  victorious  into 
Africa,  taking  his  army  with  him,  the  empire  of  Italy  will  be 
left  in  the  hands  of  the  Campanians."  All  the  envoys  agreed 
with  what  Vibius  said,  and  gave  such  a  report  of  their  mission 
that  every  one  imagined  that  the  name  of  Rome  was  utterly 
effaced. 

The  commons  and  a  majority  of  the  senate  began  instantly 
to  think  of  a  revolt.  The  persuasions  of  the  older  citizens,  how- 
ever, obtained  a  postponement  for  a  few  days.  At  last  the 
opinion  of  the  majority  prevailed,  and  the  same  envoys  who 
had  gone  to  the  Roman  consul  were  to  be  sent  to  Hannibal. 
In  some  histories  I  find  it  recorded  that  previous  to  their  de- 
parture and  the  final  decision  for  revolt,  envoys  were  sent  by 
the  Campanians  to  Rome,  with  a  demand  that  one  consul 
should  be  a  Campanian  if  Rome  desired  aid  for  her  empire. 
There  was  a  burst  of  indignation,  and  it  was  ordered  that  they 
should  be  removed  from  the  senate-house,  and  a  lictor  was 
sent  to  conduct  them  out  of  the  city  and  bid  them  tarry  that 
day  outside  Roman  territory.  But  as  this  too  closely  re- 
sembles a  demand  formerly  made  by  the  Latins,  and  as  .Cselius 
and  other  writers  had  omitted  it  not  without  good  reason,  I 
fear  to  give  it  as  a  well-authenticated  story. 

The  envoys  came  to  Hannibal  and  negotiated  a  peace  with 
him  on  the  following  terms :  No  Carthaginian  general  or 
magistrate  was  to  have  any  authority  over  a  Campanian  citi- 


B.  C.  216]  REVOLT  OF  THE   CAMPANIANS  361 

zen,  and  no  Campanian  citizen  was  to  be  called  on  for  mili- 
tary or  any  other  service  against  his  will.  Capua  was  to  have 
its  own  laws  and  its  own  magistrates.  The  Carthaginians 
were  to  hand  over  to  the  Campanians  three  hundred  of  their 
Roman  prisoners,  such  as  the  Campanians  themselves  might 
choose;  these  were  to  be  exchanged  for  the  Campanian 
knights  serving  in  Sicily.  Such  were  the  stipulated  terms. 
But  the  Campanians  crowned  this  compact  by  the  perpetration 
of  infamous  outrages.  The  commanding  officers  of  our  allies 
and  other  Roman  citizens,  some  of  whom  were  employed  in 
military  service  of  some  sort,  others  tied  to  the  spot  by  private 
affairs,  were  all  suddenly  seized  by  the  populace,  and  at  their 
bidding  shut  up  in  the  public  baths,  to  be  kept  in  safe  custody, 
it  was  alleged,  but  really  to  die  a  horrible  death  by  suffocation 
in  the  heated  atmosphere. 

Decius  Magius,  a  man  to  the  supremacy  of  whose  influence 
nothing  was  wanting  but  a  rational  temper  in  his  fellow-citi- 
zens, had  opposed  these  proceedings  as  well  as  the  despatch  of 
the  embassy  to  the  Carthaginians  with  all  his  might.  As  soon 
as  he  heard  that  Hannibal  was  sending  them  a  garrison,  he 
reminded  them,  as  a  parallel  case,  of  the  insolent  tyranny  of 
Pyrrhus  and  of  the  pitiable  servitude  of  the  Tarentines.  First 
he  publicly  protested  against  the  admission  of  the  troops ;  next 
he  insisted  that,  if  admitted,  they  should  either  be  driven  out, 
or  better  yet,  if  they  had  a  mind  to  clear  themselves  of  the 
crime  of  revolt  against  ancient  allies  of  kindred  blood,  they 
should  massacre  the  Carthaginian  garrison  and  again  submit 
themselves  to  Rome.  All  this,  and  indeed  it  was  not  done  in 
secret,  was  reported  to  Hannibal.  First,  he  sent  messengers 
to  summon  Magius  to  his  presence  in  the  camp;  then,  upon 
the  haughty  refusal  of  Magius  on  the  ground  that  Hannibal 
had  no  authority  over  a  Campanian  citizen,  the  Carthaginian, 
roused  to  fury,  ordered  the  man  to  be  arrested,  chained,  and 
dragged  before  him.  Afterward  fearing  that  violence  might 
lead  to  uproar,  and  the  excitement  of  men's  minds  provoke 
some  rash  conflict,  he  sent  out  in  advance  a  message  to  Marius 
Blossius,  chief  magistrate  of  Campania,  that  he  would  be  at 
Capua  the  next  day,  and  started  from  the  camp  with  a  small 
force. 

Marius  called  an  assembly  and  issued  a  proclamation  that 
the  people  were  to  go  in  a  body  with  their  wives  and  children 
to  meet  Hannibal.  All  did  so,  not  in  mere  obedience,  but  with 
enthusiasm ;  for  the  populace  were  well  disposed  to  Hannibal 
and  were  intensely  eager  to  see  a  general  now  famous  for  so 
many  victories.  Decius  Magius  did  not  go  out  to  meet  him, 


362  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

neither  did  he  keep  himself  at  home,  as  this  would  have  im- 
plied a  fear  of  conscious  guilt.  He  strolled  leisurely  up  and 
down  the  forum  with  his  son  and  a  few  of  his  dependants,  while 
all  the  citizens  were  rushing  excitedly  to  welcome  and  gaze  on 
Hannibal.  On  entering  the  town  Hannibal  at  once  demanded 
a  meeting  of  the  senate.  The  leading  Campanians  implored 
him  not  to  transact  any  serious  business  that  day,  but  to  cele- 
brate it  with  hearty  joy,  as  the  festal  occasion  of  his  arrival. 
Though  he  was  naturally  impetuous  in  his  wrath,  yet,  not 
to  begin  by  a  refusal,  he  passed  most  of  the  day  in  viewing 
the  city. 

He  was  entertained  by  Sthenius  and  Pacuvius,  men  dis- 
tinguished by  their  rank  and  wealth.  Pacuvius  Calavius,  of 
whom  I  have  already  spoken  as  the  leader  of  the  party  which 
had  dragged  the  country  into  the  Carthaginian  alliance, 
brought  his  son,  a  young  man,  to  the  house.  He  had  forced 
him  away  from  the  companionship  of  Decius  Magius,  with 
whom  the  youth  had  stood  up  for  the  Roman  alliance  in  op- 
position to  the  treaty  with  Carthage,  and  neither  the  changed 
temper  of  the  citizens  nor  the  authority  of  his  father  had  driven 
him  from  his  resolution.  For  this  youth  the  father,  by  inter- 
cessions rather  than  by  apologies,  now  secured  Hannibal's  par- 
don. Overcome  by  the  entreaties  and  tears  of  the  parent, 
Hannibal  gave  orders  that  both  son  and  father  be  invited  to 
dinner,  though  he  had  not  intended  that  any  Campanian 
should  be  present  at  the  entertainment  except  his  hosts  and 
Vibellius  Taurea,  a  man  of  fame  as  a  soldier. 

The  feasting  began  early  in  the  day,  and  the  banquet  was 
not  in  Carthaginian  fashion,  or  in  conformity  with  military  dis- 
cipline, but  both  rich  and  luxurious,  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected in  a  city  and  a  house  furnished  with  every  allurement  of 
pleasure.  One  alone,  the  young  Calavius,  could  not  be  urged 
to  drink,  either  by  the  solicitations  of  the  host  or  even  by  the 
occasional  pressing  of  Hannibal ;  he  himself  pleaded  indis- 
position, while  his  father  gave  as  a  further  reason  his  very 
natural  excitement.  About  sunset  Calavius  left  the  banquet, 
and  was  followed  by  his  son.  As  soon  as  they  reached  a  re- 
tired spot  (it  was  a  garden  at  the  back  of  the  house),  the  son 
said,  "  I  suggest  a  plan,  father,  by  means  of  which  we  Cam- 
panians shall  at  once  not  only  secure  from  the  Romans  pardon 
for  the  error  of  our  revolt  to  Hannibal,  but  shall  also  enjoy  far 
greater  esteem  and  favour  than  ever  in  the  past."  Full  of 
amazement  the  father  asked  what  the  plan  was,  when  the 
youth  threw  back  his  toga  from  his  shoulder,  and  exposed  to 
view  a  sword  girt  at  his  side.  "  Now,"  he  exclaimed,  "  with 


B/  C.  216]  ATTEMPT   ON   HANNIBAL'S   LIFE  363 

the  blood  of  Hannibal  I  will  make  a  binding  treaty  with 
Rome.  I  wished  you  to  know  this  beforehand,  should  you 
perchance  prefer  to  be  absent  while  the  deed  is  done." 

The  old  man,  on  hearing  and  seeing  this,  felt  as  if  he  were 
witnessing  the  deed  of  which  he  was  hearing,  and  was  beside 
himself  with  terror.  "  I  implore  and  entreat  you,  son,"  he 
said,  "  by  every  bond  which  unites  a  child  to  his  parent  not  to 
be  bent  on  doing  and  suffering  before  a  father's  eyes  all  that 
is  unspeakably  horrible.  Did  we  but  a  few  hours  ago  plight 
our  faith,  swearing  by  every  imaginable  divinity,  and  joining 
hand  to  hand,  that  we  are  now  to  leave  a  friendly  conversation, 
and  in  a  moment  arm  against  him  hands  bound  by  these  sacred 
pledges?  Do  you  rise  from  the  hospitable  table  to  which 
you  with  only  two  other  Campanians  have  been  invited  pur- 
posely to  stain  that  very  table  with  the  blood  of  your  host? 
Have  I,  a  father,  been  able  to  obtain  mercy  from  Hannibal  for 
my  son,  and  can  I  not  obtain  mercy  from  that  son  for  Hanni- 
bal? But  put  aside  all  sacred  ties,  all  good  faith,  all  obliga- 
tion, all  sense  of  duty ;  dare  a  deed  unspeakably  horrible,  pro- 
vided along  with  the  guilt  it  does  not  bring  ruin  on  us.  Is  it 
alone  that  you  mean  to  fall  upon  Hannibal  ?  What  say  you  to 
that  crowded  gathering  of  freemen  and  of  slaves,  to  the  gaze 
of  all  eyes  steadfastly  bent  on  one  man,  to  those  many  strong 
hands?  Will  they  be  paralyzed  at  the  moment  of  your  mad 
attempt?  And  the  face  of  Hannibal  himself,  the  face  which 
armed  hosts  can  not  confront,  at  which  the  people  of  Rome 
quail,  will  you  confront  it?  Suppose  the  absence  of  other 
safeguards ;  will  you  have  the  heart  to  strike  down  me,  your 
father,  when  I  interpose  my  life  to  save  that  of  Hannibal? 
Well,  but  it  is  through  my  breast  that  you  must  smite  and 
pierce  him.  Suffer  yourself  now  to  be  dissuaded  here  rather 
than  to  be  vanquished  there.  Let  my  entreaties  prevail  with 
you,  as  this  day  they  have  prevailed  for  you." 

Then  seeing  the  youth  in  tears  he  clasped  him  round  the 
waist,  clung  to  him  with  kisses,  and  did  not  cease  his  entreaties 
till  he  had  constrained  him  to  cast  aside  his  sword,  and  to 
pledge  himself  to  do  no  such  deed.  Upon  this  the  youth  re- 
plied :  "  As  for  myself,  the  duty  I  owe  my  country  shall  be  paid 
to  my  father.  I  sorrow  for  your  lot,  for  you  have  to  bear  the 
guilt  of  a  thrice-betrayed  country,  betrayed  first  when  you 
prompted  revolt  from  Rome,  a  second  time  when  you  prompt- 
ed a  peace  with  Hannibal ;  a  third  time  this  day,  when  you  are 
an  obstacle  and  a  hindrance  to  the  restoration  of  Capua  to 
the  Romans.  Receive  this  sword,  my  country,  with  which 
I  armed  myself  in  your  defence  to  enter  this  stronghold  of  an 


364  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  216 

enemy,  since  a  father  wrests  it  from  me."  With  these  words, 
he  flung  the  sword  over  the  hedge  of  the  garden  into  the  pub- 
lic street,  and  that  there  might  be  no  suspicion  of  the  matter, 
returned  himself  to  the  banquet. 

Next  day  Hannibal  attended  a  full  meeting  of  the  senate. 
The  first  part  of  his  address  was  very  conciliatory  and  friendly. 
In  this  he  thanked  the  Campanians  for  having  preferred  his 
friendship  to  alliance  with  Rome,  and  among  other  magnifi- 
cent promises  he  assured  them  that  Capua  would  soon  be 
the  head  of  all  Italy,  and  that  even  the  Romans  with  its  other 
peoples  would  seek  laws  from  their  city.  One  man  alone 
was  to  have  no  part  in  the  Carthaginian  friendship  and  in  the 
treaty  they  had  concluded  with  him,  Decius  Magius,  a  man 
who  was  not  and  ought  not  to  be  called  a  Campanian.  Of 
that  man  he  required  the  surrender,  and  in  his  own  presence 
his  case  must  be  considered  and  a  resolution  of  the  senate 
be  passed. 

All  voted  for  the  proposal,  though  many  were  of  opinion 
that  the  man  did  not  deserve  such  ruin,  and  that  this  was 
no  slight  beginning  toward  breaking  down  the  rights  of  free- 
dom. Hannibal  left  the  senate-house,  and  taking  his  seat  on 
the  magistrate's  bench,  ordered  Decius  Magius  to  be  arrested, 
set  at  his  feet,  and  put  on  his  defence.  When  the  man,  who 
still  retained  his  high  spirit,  urged  that  by  the  terms  of  the 
treaty  this  could  not  be  insisted  on,  he  was  thrown  into  chains, 
and  orders  were  given  that  he  should  be  conducted  to  the 
camp,  with  a  lictor  behind  him.  So  long  as  he  was  led  along 
with  his  head  uncovered,  he  harangued  incessantly  as  he 
went,  shouting  to  the  crowds  that  gathered  round  him :  "  You 
have,  Campanians,  the  freedom  which  you  sought.  In  the 
middle  of  the  forum,  in  broad  daylight,  under  your  eyes,  I  who 
am  inferior  to  no  man  of  Campania,  am  dragged  away  in 
chains  to  execution.  What  worse  violence  could  be  done  if 
Capua  were  a  captured  city?  Go  and  meet  Hannibal,  deck 
your  streets  and  keep  the  day  of  his  arrival  as  a  holiday,  so 
that  you  may  gaze  on  this  triumph  over  your  fellow-citizens." 

As  the  mob  seemed  to  be  excited  at  these  shouts  of  his,  his 
head  was  covered  and  orders  were  given  to  hurry  him  swiftly 
outside  the  city  gate.  And  so  he  was  conducted  to  the  camp, 
and  instantly  put  on  board  a  vessel  and  despatched  to  Car- 
thage. Even  the  senate,  it  was  thought,  if  a  disturbance  in  the 
city  were  provoked  by  this  shameful  business,  might  repent  of 
having  surrendered  their  chief  man,  and,  should  an  embassy 
be  sent  for  his  recovery,  they  would  either  have  to  offend  their 
new  allies  by  refusing  their  first  request,  or  else,  by  granting  it, 


fc.  C.  216]    CARTHAGE  RECEIVES  NEWS  OF  CANNAE        365 

have  to  tolerate  the  presence  of  a  leader  of  discord  and  dis- 
order at  Capua. 

A  storm  drove  the  vessel  to  Cyrenae,  which  was  then  under 
the  rule  of  kings.  Here  Magius  fled  for  refuge  to  the  statue  of 
King  Ptolemaeus,1  whence  he  was  conveyed  by  guards  to  Alex- 
andria into  the  king's  presence.  Having  explained  to  Ptole- 
maeus that  he  had  been  put  in  chains  by  Hannibal  in  violation 
of  the  terms  of  a  treaty,  he  was  set  at  liberty  and  permission 
to  return  to  Rome  or  to  Capua,  as  he  chose,  was  granted  him. 
Magius  said  that  Capua  was  not  safe  for  him,  while  Rome, 
during  the  war  between  the  Romans  and  Campanians,  would 
be  a  home  for  a  deserter  rather  than  for  a  friendly  visitor. 
There  was  not  a  country  wherein  he  would  sooner  live  than 
the  realm  of  the  prince  in  whom  he  had  found  the  champion 
and  upholder  of  his  freedom. 

During  these  occurrences,  Ouintus  Fabius  Pictor,  our  en- 
voy, returned  from  Delphi  and  read  from  a  written  document 
the  oracle's  reply.  The  gods  and  goddesses  to  whom  prayer 
was  to  be  made,  and  the  mode  of  making  it,  were  given.  Next 
it  said :  "  If,  Romans,  you  will  do  accordingly,  your  plight 
will  be  better  and  easier,  and  your  commonwealth  will  fare 
more  as  you  would  wish,  and  victory  in  the  war  will  be  with 
the  people  of  Rome.  When  your  state  has  prospered  and  has 
been  saved,  send  to  the  Pythian  Apollo  a  gift  out  of  the  gains 
you  will  have  earned,  and  pay  him  honour  out  of  the  plunder, 
the  booty,  and  the  spoils.  Put  wantonness  far  from  you." 

This  translated  from  the  Greek  verses  he  read  aloud,  and 
then  he  said  that  on  leaving  the  oracle  he  at  once  offered 
sacrifice  to  all  these  gods  and  goddesses  with  wine  and  in- 
cense ;  that  the  presiding  priest  of  the  temple  had  bidden  him 
go  on  board  his  ship  with  the  same  laurel  garland  which  he 
had  worn  when  he  visited  the  oracle  and  performed  the  sacri- 
fice, and  that,  fulfilling  all  the  directions  prescribed  him  with 
the  most  conscientious  care  and  exactness,  he  had  laid  the 
garland  on  the  shrine  of  Apollo  at  Rome.  The  senate  decided 
that  these  sacred  rites  and  prayers  should  be  carefully  per- 
formed at  Rome  at  the  earliest  opportunity. 

During  these  proceedings  in  Rome  and  Italy,  there  had 
arrived  at  Carthage  with  tidings  of  the  victory  at  Cannae, 
Mago,  Hamilcar's  son.  He  had  not  been  despatched  by  his 
brother  from  the  actual  battle-field,  but  had  been  detained 
some  days  in  receiving  into  alliance  the  Bruttian  communities, 
as  one  after  another  they  revolted.  As  soon  as  a  meeting  of 
the  senate  had  been  granted  him,  he  recounted  his  brother's 
1  Surnamed  Philopater. — D.  O. 


366  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

achievements  in  Italy,  how  he  had  fought  battles  with  six  gen- 
erals, four  being  consuls,  and  two  respectively  a  dictator  and  a 
master  of  the  horse,  and  with  armies  under  consular  com- 
mand; how  he  had  slain  over  two  hundred  thousand  men, 
and  taken  over  fifty  thousand  prisoners.  Of  the  four  consuls 
two  had  fallen ;  of  the  two  remaining  one  was  wounded,  and 
the  other,  after  losing  his  entire  army,  had  barely  escaped  with 
fifty  men.  The  master  of  the  horse  had  been  routed  and  put 
to  flight;  the  dictator,  as  he  had  never  trusted  himself  to 
fight,  was  reputed  a  peerless  general.  The  Bruttians  and 
Apulians,  some  of  the  Samnites  and  Lucanians,  had  revolted  to 
Carthage ;  Capua,  the  head  not  only  of  Campania  but  even  of 
Italy  after  the  prostration  of  Rome  by  the  battle  of  Cannae, 
had  given  itself  up  to  Hannibal.  For  so  many  great  victories 
it  was  reasonable  that  there  should  be  a  formal  thanksgiving 
to  the  immortal  gods. 

Then  in  confirmation  of  such  joyful  intelligence,  he  bade 
them  pour  on  the  threshold  of  the  senate-house  rings  of  gold 
in  so  vast  a  heap  as  to  make  up,  when  measured,  three  pecks 
and  a  half  according  to  some  authors.  But  the  prevalent  and 
more  probable  report  is  that  they  did  not  exceed  one  peck. 
Afterward  he  explained,  to  prove  the  disaster  was  yet  greater 
than  it  seemed,  that  only  a  knight,  and  of  the  knights  only  the 
first  in  rank,1  wore  this  ornament.  The  drift  of  his  speech  was 
that  the  nearer  was  Hannibal's  prospect  of  ending  the  war,  the 
more  ought  they  to  support  him  with  assistance  of  every  kind. 
He  was  fighting  far  from  home  in  the  heart  of  an  enemy's 
country;  there  was  a  vast  consumption  of  provisions  and 
money,  and  so  many  battles,  though  they  had  destroyed  whole 
armies  of  the  enemy,  had  to  some  extent  reduced  the  forces  of 
the  conqueror  as  well.  They  ought  therefore  to  send  re-en- 
forcements ;  they  ought  to  send  money  for  pay  and  provisions 
to  troops  which  had  deserved  so  well  of  the  name  of  Carthage. 

Amid  the  universal  joy  that  followed  Mago's  words,  Himil- 
co,  a  man  of  the  Barcine  faction,  who  thought  he  saw  room  for 
taunting  Hanno,  said :  "  Well,  Hanno,  do  you  still  repent  of 
our  having  made  war  on  the  Romans?  Bid  us  surrender 
Hannibal ;  tell  us  we  are  not  to  render  thanks  to  the  immortal 
gods  for  such  successes.  Let  us  hear  the  voice  of  a  Roman 
senator  in  the  Carthaginian  assembly-house."  Hanno  re- 
plied :  "  I  would  have  been  silent  to-day,  fellow-senators, 
rather  than  say  amid  the  common  rejoicing  of  all  what  may 
not  be  quite  welcome  to  you.  Now,  however,  when  asked  by 

1  That  is,  the  equites  equo  publico.    The  rest  wore  the  iron  ring  of  the 
plebeians. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  216]        HANNO   HARANGUES   THE   SENATE  367 

a  senator  whether  I  still  repent  of  our  having  made  war  on 
the  Romans,  you  would  see  in  me,  were  I  to  be  silent,  a  tem- 
per either  haughty  or  servile.  The  first  is  the  character  of  the 
man  who  forgets  the  freedom  of  others ;  the  latter  that  of  him 
who  forgets  his  own. 

"  My  answer  to  Himilco,"  he  went  on  to  say,  "  is  that  I 
have  not  ceased  to  repent  of  the  war,  and  that  I  never  shall 
cease  to  find  fault  with  your  invincible  general  till  I  see  the 
war  ended  on  some  tolerable  terms.  Nothing,  indeed,  but  a 
new  peace  will  terminate  my  regret  for  the  peace  of  old  days. 
And  so  what  Mago  hast  just  boastfully  told  us  to  the  present 
delight  of  Himilco  and  Hannibal's  other  partisans,  may  de- 
light me,  because  success  in  war,  if  we  choose  to  use  our 
good  fortune,  will  give  us  a  more  favourable  peace.  If,  in- 
deed, we  let  slip  this  opportunity  when  we  may  have  the  credit 
of  offering  peace  rather  than  of  accepting  it,  I  am  afraid 
that  even  this  present  rejoicing  of  ours  will  grow  wanton  and 
end  in  vanity.  And  yet  even  now  what  does  it  mean?  '  I 
have  destroyed  whole  armies  of  the  enemy;  send  me  soldiers/ 
What  else  would  you  ask  had  you  been  beaten?  '  I  have  taken 
two  of  the  enemy's  camps,  full,  of  course,  of  booty  and  pro- 
visions; give  me  corn  and  money.'  What  else  woiild  you 
want  from  us  had  you  been  despoiled  and  deprived  of  your 
camp?  And  that  I  may  not  merely  express  my  own  surprise 
at  everything,  let  me  say  that  I — for  I,  too,  since  I  have  an- 
swered Himilco,  have  the  fullest  right  to  ask  a  question — 
desire  that  either  Himilco  or  Mago  will  answer  me.  The  fight 
at  Cannae,  you  say,  was  almost  the  destruction  of  Rome's  em- 
pire, and  all  Italy  is  admitted  to  be  in  revolt.  Has  any  nation 
of  Latin  race  revolted  to  us?  has  a  single  man  of  the  five-and- 
thirty  Roman  tribes  deserted  to  Hannibal?  " 

Mago's  reply  was  a  denial  in  both  cases.  "  Then,"  said 
Hanno,  "  too  many  of  the  enemy  still  remain.  But  I  should 
like  to  know  what  is  the  temper,  what  the  confidence  of  this 
host."  Mago  said  that  of  this  he  knew  nothing.  "  Nothing 
may  be  more  easily  known,"  was  Hanno's  answer.  "  Have 
the  Romans  sent  any  envoys  to  Hannibal  to  treat  for  peace? 
Have  you  had  news  of  any  mention  at  all  of  peace  at  Rome?  " 

To  this  again  Mago  said  No.  "  Then  we  have,"  said 
Hanno,  "  a  war  upon  our  hands  just  as  fresh  as  on  the  day 
when  Hannibal  crossed  over  into  Italy.  Many  of  us  are  still 
alive  to  remember  the  frequent  alternations  of  victory  in  the 
former  Punic  war.  Never  did  our  fortunes  seem  more  pros- 
perous both  by  sea  and  land  than  previous  to  the  consulship 
of  Caius  Lutatius  and  Aulus  Postumius.  As  soon  as  they  were 


368  LIVY'S    ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  216 

consuls,  we  were  utterly  defeated  at  the  Agates  Islands.  And 
if  now,  too  (the  gods  avert  the  omen!),  fortune  somewhat 
change,  do  you  hope,  when  vanquished,  for  the  peace  which, 
now  that  we  are  victorious,  no  one  offers?  I  have  indeed  an 
opinion  to  express,  if  the  question  is  to  be  whether  we  are  to 
offer  the  enemy  peace  or  to  accept  it;  but  if  you  mean  to  dis- 
cuss Mago's  demands,  I  maintain  that  we  have  no  business 
to  send  what  he  asks  to  a  conquering  army,  still  less  ought 
we  to  send  it  when  they  are  deluding  us  with  a  vain  and  empty 
hope." 

A  few  only  were  impressed  by  Hanno's  speech.  His  feud 
with  the  Barcine  family  impaired  the  authority  of  his  advice, 
and  the  joy,  too,  which  at  the  moment  possessed  all  hearts 
made  their  ears  deaf  to  anything  which  might  weaken  the 
grounds  of  their  exultation.  The  war,  they  thought,  would 
soon  be  over,  if  they  resolved  to  exert  themselves  a  little.  And 
so  with  the  heartiest  unanimity  a  vote  was  carried  in  the 
senate  to  send  Hannibal,  as  re-enforcements,  four  thousand 
Numidians,  with  forty  elephants  and  a  supply  of  money.  An 
officer  with  supreme  powers  was  sent  on  at  once  with  Mago 
into  Spain  to  raise  twenty  thousand  infantry  and  four  thou- 
sand horse  to  fill  up  the  ranks  of  the  armies  in  Italy  and 
Spain. 

All  this,  however,  was  done  as  tardily  and  languidly  as 
is  usual  in  the  midst  of  success.  The  plight  of  the  Romans 
as  well  as  their  natural  energy  kept  them  from  being  dilatory. 
The  consul  failed  not  in  any  duty  which  he  had  to  discharge, 
and  the  dictator,  Marcus  Junius  Pera,  after  due  performance 
of  the  sacred  rites  and  the  customary  application  to  the  popu- 
lar assembly  for  permission  to  use  a  horse,1  not  content  with 
the  two  city  legions  which  the  consuls  had  raised  early  in  the 
year,  a  levy  of  slaves  and  a  muster  of  troops  from  Picenum 
and  Gaul,  stooped  to  the  last  resource  of  a  country  almost  past 
hope,  when  honour  must  yield  to  necessity.  He  issued  a 
proclamation  addressed  to  all  who  had  committed  capital 
offences  or  who  were  in  prison  as  convicted  debtors,  that  such 
of  them  as  should  serve  as  soldiers  under  him  should  by  his 
authority  be  released  from  punishment  and  debt.  Six  thou- 
sand of  these  men  he  equipped  out  of  the  Gallic  spoils,  which 
had  been  carried  in  the  triumph  of  Caius  Flaminius,  and  so 
he  marched  from  Rome  with  twenty-five  thousand  armed  sol- 
diers. 

After  receiving  the  submission  of  Capua  and  making  an- 

1  Zonaras  says  this  could  not  be  done  except  when  the  dictator  was 
about  to  take  the  field, — D.  0, 


B.  C.  216]          MARCELLUS   MARCHES   TO   NOLA  369 

other  fruitless  appeal  to  the  hopes  and  fears  of  the  Neapolitans, 
Hannibal  led  his  army  into  the  country  round  Nola.  His  atti- 
tude, indeed,  was  not  immediately  hostile,  as  he  did  not  de- 
spair of  a  voluntary  surrender,  but  he  meant,  should  they  long 
disappoint  his  hopes,  to  spare  the  people  nothing  in  the  way 
of  all  possible  suffering  or  terror.  The  senate,  especially  the 
leading  men,  loyally  adhered  to  their  alliance  with  Rome;  the 
commons,  as  usual,  were  all  for  change  and  devoted  to  Hanni- 
bal, while  they  let  their  thoughts  dwell  on  the  horror  of  rav- 
aged fields  and  the  many  hardships  and  indignities  they  would 
have  to  endure  in  a  siege.  Instigators  of  revolt,  too,  were  not 
wanting.  Thus  the  senators,  seized  with  apprehension  that 
if  they  openly  stood  their  ground  there  was  no  possibility  of 
resisting  the  infuriated  populace,  found  means  to  defer  the 
calamity  by  feigning  compliance.  They  pretended  that  they 
liked  the  notion  of  revolt  to  Hannibal,  but  that  it  was  not 
sufficiently  definite  on  what  terms  they  would  be  entering  into 
a  new  treaty  and  alliance. 

Having  thus  secured  some  delay,  they  despatched  envoys 
with  all  speed  to  the  Roman  praetor,  Marcellus,  who  was  with 
an  army  at  Casilinum.  They  explained  to  him  how  extreme 
was  the  jeopardy  of  the  people  of  Nola;  how  their  territory 
was  in  the  hands  of  Hannibal  and  the  Carthaginians,  how  their 
city  would  be  his  forthwith,  unless  they  received  aid.  By 
conceding  a  promise  to  the  populace  that  they  would  revolt 
when  they  wished,  the  senate  had  prevailed  on  them  not  to 
rush  into  instant  revolt. 

Marcellus  warmly  praised  the  citizens  of  Nola,  and  bade 
them  delay  matters  by  the  same  pretexts  till  his  arrival.  Mean- 
while they  were  to  conceal  what  had  passed  between  them  and 
himself  and  all  prospect  of  help  from  Rome.  From  Casilinum 
he  directed  his  march  toward  Caiatia,1  whence,  after  crossing 
the  Vulturnus,  he  reached  Nola  through  the  district  of  Satic- 
ula  and  Trebula  over  the  hills  above  Suessula.2 

On  the  arrival  of  the  Roman  praetor,  the  Carthaginian 
quitted  the  territory  of  Nola  and  marched  down  to  the  sea, 
close  to  Naples.  He  was  eager  to  possess  himself  of  a  town 
on  the  coast,  that  ships  might  have  a  safe  passage  from  Africa; 
but  as  soon  as  he  heard  that  the  place  was  held  by  a  Roman 
officer  (Marcus  Junius  Silanus  was  there,  invited  by  the  citi- 
zens themselves),  he  passed  by  Naples  as  he  had  Nola,  and 

1  Now  Caiazzo. — D.  O. 

*  Now  Sessola.  The  text  of  this  paragraph  has  been  much  ques- 
tioned and  more  or  less  doctored  to  meet  geographical  conditions. 
-P.O. 

H 


370  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  216 

made  for  Nuceria.1  For  some  time  he  besieged  the  place,  fre- 
quently attacking  it,  frequently  addressing  vain  solicitations 
now  to  the  populace,  now  to  the  chief  men,  until  at  last  he 
obtained  its  surrender  by  famine  on  the  understanding  that 
the  inhabitants  were  to  leave  it  without  arms  and  with  one 
garment  apiece.  Then,  inasmuch  as  from  the  first  he  had 
wished  to  seem  friendly  to  all  Italians,  except  Romans,  he 
offered  rewards  and  honours  to  those  who  remained  and  were 
willing  to  serve  under  him.  Not  a  man,  however,  did  he 
secure  by  this  prospect.  They  all  fled  hither  and  thither, 
wherever  ties  of  friendship  or  the  impulse  of  the  moment  urged 
them,  through  the  towns  of  Campania,  to  Nola  and  Naples 
especially.  About  thirty  senators,  all,  as  it  happened,  of  the 
first  rank,  made  for  Capua,  and  finding  themselves  shut  out 
because  they  had  closed  their  gates  against  Hannibal,  took 
refuge  at  Cumae.  The  spoil  of  Nuceria  was  given  to  the 
soldiers;  the  city  was  plundered  and  burned.  Marcellus  held 
Nola  as  much  by  the  good-will  of  its  leading  men  as  by  con- 
fidence in  his  garrison.  The  populace  he  dreaded,  and  above 
all  one  Lucius  Bantius.  The  conscious  guilt  of  attempted 
revolt  and  fear  inspired  by  the  Roman  praetor  prompted  this 
man  at  one  moment  to  betray  his  birthplace,  at  another,  should 
fortune  fail  him  in  this,  to  desert  to  the  enemy.  He  was  a 
youth  of  spirit,  and  the  noblest  knight  of  the  time  among  all 
our  allies.  Hannibal  had  found  him  half  dead  at  Cannae  amid 
a  heap  of  slain;  he  had  treated  him  kindly,  had  even  made 
him  a  present,  and  so  sent  him  home.  Gratitude  for  these 
favours  made  him  wish  to  hand  over  Nola  to  the  control  and 
dominion  of  the  Carthaginians,  and  the  praetor  saw  that  he 
was  restless  and  disquieted  by  thoughts  of  revolution. 

As  the  man  had  to  be  either  checked  by  punishment  or 
won  by  kindness,  Marcellus  thought  it  better  that  a  brave  and 
energetic  ally  should  be  secured  for  himself  than  lost  to  the 
enemy.  He  therefore  invited  him  to  his  quarters  and  spoke 
kindly  to  him.  "  You  have  a  host  of  envious  fellow-citizens," 
he  said,  "  and  hence  one  may  easily  infer,  what  no  citizen  of 
Nola  has  told  me,  how  numerous  have  been  your  noble  deeds 
in  war.  However,  if  a  man  has  once  been  a  soldier  in  a  Roman 
camp,  his  valour  can  not  remain  hidden.  Many  who  have 
served  with  you  tell  me  what  a  brave  man  you  are,  what 
dangers  you  have  repeatedly  encountered  for  the  safety  and 
honour  of  the  Roman  people,  and  how  you  never  quitted  the 
field  of  Cannae  till  you  were  buried  almost  lifeless  under  a 
falling  mass  of  men,  horses,  and  arms.  And  so,  Heaven's 
1  Now  known  as  Nocera  Inferiore. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  216]  THE   BATTLE   AT  NOLA  371 

blessing  on  your  valour.  From  me  you  shall  have  every 
distinction  and  reward;  and  that  you  may  be  the  oftener  with 
me,  you  shall  see  that  this  means  both  honour  and  advantage 
to  you." 

The  young  man  was  delighted  at  these  promises.  Mar- 
cellus  presented  him  with  a  splendid  charger,  and  bade  his 
quaestor  count  out  for  him  five  hundred  silver  coins.  His 
lictors  had  orders  to  allow  him  to  visit  him  as  often  as  he 
pleased.  This  courtesy  on  the  part  of  Marcellus  so  completely 
subdued  the  temper  of  the  high-spirited  youth  that  from  that 
time  Rome  had  not  a  braver  and  more  loyal  champion  among 
her  allies. 

Hannibal  being  once  more  before  the  gates  of  Nola  (he 
had  again  moved  his  camp  thither  from  Nuceria),  and  the 
populace  once  more  thinking  of  revolt,  Marcellus  on  the  ene- 
my's approach  had  retired  within  the  walls.  He  did  not  fear 
for  his  camp,  but  no  opportunity  of  betraying  the  town  would 
he  give  to  those  too  numerous  citizens  who  were  intent  on 
treachery.  Both  armies  now  began  to  array  themselves  for 
battle,  the  Roman  army  before  the  walls  of  Nola,  the  Cartha- 
ginians in  front  of  their  camp.  Hence  ensued  skirmishes  with 
varying  result  between  the  town  and  the  camp,  as  the  generals 
did  not  choose  either  to  hold  back  the  few  soldiers  who  rashly 
challenged  their  foes  or  to  give  the  signal  for  a  general  en- 
gagement. 

Such  being  now  the  position  day  after  day  of  the  two 
armies,  the  leading  citizens  of  Nola  told  Marcellus  that  there 
were  nightly  communications  between  the  commons  and  the 
Carthaginians,  and  that  it  had  been  decided  to  plunder  the 
baggage  and  property  of  the  Roman  troops  as  soon  as  they 
marched  out  of  the  gates,  then  to  close  the  gates  and  take 
possession  of  the  ramparts,  intending  to  admit  the  Cartha- 
ginians instead  of  the  Romans  the  moment  they  had  the  con- 
trol of  their  own  affairs  and  of  the  town.  Marcellus,  on  re-, 
ceiving  this  information,  highly  commended  the  senators  of 
Nola,  and  resolved  to  try  the  fortune  of  battle  before  any  dis- 
turbance broke  out  in  the  town. 

He  drew  up  his  army  in  three  divisions  at  three  gates 
facing  the  enemy,  with  orders  that  the  baggage  was  to  follow 
close  behind,  and  that  the  soldiers'  servants,  the  sutlers,  and 
the  invalids  were  each  to  carry  a  stake.  At  the  middle  gate 
he  posted  the  main  strength  of  his  legions  and  his  Roman 
cavalry,  at  the  other  two  his  raw  recruits,  his  newly  enlisted 
men,  and  his  light-armed  troops.  The  inhabitants  of  Nola 
were  not  allowed  to  approach  the  walls  or  the  gates,  and  the 


372  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

force  intended  as  a  reserve  was  assigned  to  the  baggage,  so 
that  an  attack  might  not  be  made  on  it  when  the  legions  were 
engaged  in  the  fight. 

Thus  drawn  up  they  stood  within  the  gates.  Hannibal, 
who,  as  he  had  done  for  several  days,  had  his  troops  under 
arms  till  a  late  hour,  was  at  first  astonished  that  the  Roman 
army  did  not  march  out  of  the  city,  and  that  not  a  single 
armed  soldier  appeared  on  the  walls.  Concluding  that  the 
secret  of  the  communications  had  been  betrayed,  and  that  fear 
kept  his  friends  quiet,  he  sent  back  part  of  his  troops  to  their 
camp  with  orders  to  bring  up  to  the  front  all  the  appliances  for 
an  assault,  as  he  was  confident  that,  if  he  met  hesitation  with 
prompt  action,  the  populace  would  raise  some  disturbance  in 
the  town.  While  all  were  hurrying  in  bustle  and  excitement 
to  their  several  posts  amid  the  foremost  standards  and  the  front 
line  was  approaching  the  wall,  suddenly  the  gate  was  thrown 
open,  at  the  order  of  Marcellus  the  trumpet  sounded  the  signal, 
a  shout  was  raised,  and  first  the  infantry  and  then  the  cavalry 
flung  themselves  on  the  enemy  with  all  the  fury  of  their  fiercest 
attack.  They  had  already  carried  terror  and  confusion  enough 
into  the  centre  of  his  line,  when  from  the  two  adjacent  gates  the 
lieutenants,  Valerius  Flaccus  and  Caius  Aurelius,  burst  upon 
his  flanks.  Added  to  all  this  came  a  shout  from  the  sutlers  and 
soldiers'  servants  and  the  rest  of  the  crowd  set  to  guard  the 
baggage.  To  the  Carthaginians,  who  were  specially  scorn- 
ful of  the  scanty  numbers  of  the  foe,  this  gave  the  sudden 
semblance  of  an  immense  army.  I  would  not  myself  venture 
to  affirm  what  some  authors  state,  that  two  thousand  eight 
hundred  of  the  enemy  were  slain,  with  a  loss  of  not  more 
than  five  hundred  Romans.  However,  whether  the  victory 
was  as  great  or  less  considerable,  a  mighty  result,  the  great- 
est perhaps  throughout  the  war,  was  achieved  that  day.  For 
indeed  not  to  be  defeated  by  Hannibal  was  for  the  victors 
on  that  occasion  a  harder  matter  than  it  was  afterward  to 
defeat  him.1 

As  soon  as  Hannibal,  who  had  now  lost  all  hope  of  pos- 
sessing himself  of  Nola,  had  retired  to  Acerrse,2  Marcellus  in- 
stantly closed  the  city  gates,  setting  guards  at  them  that  no 
one  might  go  out,  and  then  held  an  inquiry  in  the  forum  on 

1  As  being  the  first  occasion  when  the  Romans  broke  the  spell  of  Car- 
thaginian fortune.  As  for  this  and  many  future  victories  there  is  reason 
to  believe  them  much  exaggerated.  Hannibal's  presence  in  particular 
being  frequently  inferred,  perhaps  in  accordance  with  the  Roman  custom 
of  attributing  victories  and  defeats  to  the  auspices  and  hence  to  the  per- 
sons of  absent  consuls  and  emperors. — D.  O. 

*  Now  Acerra.: — D.  O. 


B.  C.  216]  HANNIBAL   AT   CASILINUM  373 

the  men  who  had  been  in  secret  communication  with  the 
enemy.  More  than  seventy  he  convicted  and  beheaded  ;  their 
property  was  by  his  order  confiscated  for  the  uses  of  the  Ro- 
man people ;  the  senate  was  invested  with  supreme  authority, 
and  Marcellus  marched  out  with  his  whole  army  and  estab- 
lished himself  in  a  camp  overlooking  Suessula. 

The  Carthaginian  at  first  attempted  to  persuade  Acerrae 
to  a  voluntary  surrender,  but  on  seeing  that  the  inhabitants 
were  resolute,  he  prepared  for  a  siege  and  an  assault.  The 
townsfolk  had  more  courage  than  strength.  Despairing  of 
the  defence  of  their  city  when  they  saw  the  blockade  closing 
round  their  walls,  they  stole  away  in  the  silence  of  night,  be- 
fore the  circle  was  completed,  through  any  gap  in  the  lines  or 
at  any  negligently  guarded  point,  and  with  or  without  the 
track  of  roads  to  guide  them  they  fled,  as  design  or  chance 
suggested,  to  those  cities  of  Campania  which  it  was  certain 
had  not  thrown  off  their  allegiance. 

After  plundering  and  burning  Acerrae,  Hannibal,  who  had 
received  intelligence  from  Casilinum  that  the  Roman  dictator 
was  advancing  with  his  legions,  and  who  feared  some  revolu- 
tionary movement  also  in  Capua  with  the  enemy's  camp  in 
such  close  proximity,  marched  his  army  to  Casilinum.  The 
place  was  then  held  by  five  hundred  citizens  of  Praeneste,  and 
with  them  were  a  few  Romans  and  men  of  Latin  nationality, 
whom  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Cannae  had  driven  thither  for 
refuge.  The  levy  at  Praeneste  not  having  been  completed  by 
the  proper  day,  these  five  hundred  had  left  their  homes  too 
late.  They  had  reached  Casilinum  before  the  news  of  the  de- 
feat, and  being  there  joined  by  other  Romans  and  allies,  they 
had  marched  out  of  the  town  in  considerable  force,  when 
tidings  of  the  battle  turned  them  back  to  it.  There,  notwith- 
standing the  suspicions  of  the  Campanians  and  their  own 
fears,  they  passed  some  days  in  securing  themselves  against 
plots  and  in  hatching  plots  in  their  turn,  till  they  knew  as  a 
certain  fact  that  negotiations  were  on  foot  for  the  revolt  of 
Capua  and  the  admission  of  Hannibal.  Then  they  massacred 
the  townsfolk  by  night  and  seized  the  part  of  the  city  on  this 
side  of  the  Vulturnus,  the  river  which  divides  it.  And  so  the 
Romans  had  this  force  as  a  garrison  at  Casilinum.  There  was 
also  in  addition  a  cohort  from  Perusia  *  of  four  hundred  and 
sixty  men,  driven  to  Casilinum  by  the  same  news  which  a 
few  days  before  had  driven  thither  the  men  of  Praeneste. 
There  were  about  enough  armed  soldiers  to  defend  so  small 
an  extent  of  walls,  surrounded  too  as  the  place  was  on  one 

1  Now  Perugia.— D.  O. 


374  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

side  by  a  river.  Want  of  corn,  however,  made  the  number 
of  men  seem  actually  excessive. 

As  soon  as  Hannibal  was  within  a  moderate  distance  of 
the  place  he  sent  forward  some  Gaetulians,  under  an  officer 
named  Isalcas,  with  orders,  first  of  all,  in  the  event  of  a 
friendly  interview  being  possible,  to  coax  the  citizens  with 
kindly  words  into  opening  their  gates  and  admitting  a  gar- 
rison; but,  should  they  persist  in  obstinate  resistance,  to  re- 
sort to  force  and  try  an  assault  on  any  part  of  the  city  that 
might  be  practicable.  When  they  approached  the  walls,  all 
was  silent,  and  it  seemed  a  solitude.  Fear,  so  the  barbarian 
thought,  had  driven  them  away,  and  he  was  preparing  to 
storm  the  gates  and  break  down  the  barriers,  when  suddenly 
they  were  thrown  open,  and  two  cohorts,  drawn  up  inside  for 
this  express  purpose,  burst  forth  with  great  uproar  and  made 
havoc  of  the  enemy.  The  foremost  ranks  having  been  thus 
beaten  back,  Maharbal  was  despatched  with  a  stronger  force 
of  the  best  soldiers,  but  even  he  could  not  sustain  the  furious 
onset  of  the  cohorts.  At  last  Hannibal  pitched  his  camp  be- 
fore the  walls,  and,  small  as  was  the  place  and  small  the  gar- 
rison, prepared  for  an  attack  in  full  force,  with  his  whole 
army.  While  he  was  threatening  and  harassing  the  town, 
having  drawn  his  lines  completely  round  the  walls,  he  lost 
several  of  his  soldiers,  and  these  his  bravest  men,  struck  down 
from  the  ramparts  and  towers.  Once,  when  the  besiegers 
in  their  turn  attacked,  he  all  but  cut  them  off  by  confronting 
them  with  a  troop  of  elephants,  and  drove  them  back  in  confu- 
sion to  their  walls  with  considerable  loss  for  such  a  mere  hand- 
ful of  men.  More  would  have  been  slain  had  not  night 
stopped  the  fighting. 

Next  day  the  heart  of  every  soldier  was  fired  with  ardour 
for  the  assault ;  the  more  so  when  a  golden  wreath  was  offered 
for  the  first  man  on  the  ramparts,  and  when  Hannibal  him- 
self taunted  the  captors  of  Saguntum  with  their  tardy  efforts 
to  storm  a  fortress  which  stood  on  level  ground,  and  reminded 
them  one  and  all  of  Cannae,  Trasumennus,  and  Trebia.  The 
regular  siege-works  and  mines  were  then  applied,  nor  did 
the  Roman  allies  fail  to  meet  the  various  attempts  of  the 
enemy  with  force  and  skill  of  every  kind.  The  siege-works 
they  encountered  with  barriers  for  defence,  and  the  hostile 
mines  they  intercepted  with  counter-mines,  thus  opposing  a 
resistance  to  every  open  or  secret  attack,  till  actual  shame 
turned  Hannibal  from  his  purpose.  He  fortified  a  camp,  leav- 
ing in  it  a  moderate  force,  that  the  siege  might  not  be  regarded 
as  abandoned,  and  retired  into  winter  quarters  at  Capua. 


B.  C.  216]  HANNIBAL'S   ARMY  AT  CAPUA  375 

Here  for  most  of  the  winter  he  had  his  army  under  cover. 
Often  and  long  had  it  steeled  itself  against  every  human  hard- 
ship, and  of  comfort  it  had  had  no  trial  or  experience.  And 
thus  the  men  whom  no  intensity  of  misery  had  conquered,  were 
now  ruined  by  a  superfluity  of  good  things  and  an  excess  of 
pleasure,  all  the  more  utterly,  as  from  the  novelty  of  these  en- 
joyments they  plunged  into  them  so  greedily.  Sloth,  wine, 
feasting,  women,  baths,  and  idle  lounging,  which,  with  daily 
habit,  became  increasingly  attractive,  so  enervated  both  body 
and  mind,  that  henceforth  it  was  their  past  victories  rather 
than  their  present  strength  which  saved  them.  This  error  of 
the  general  was  considered  by  good  judges  of  the  art  of  war 
more  fatal  than  his  not  having  marched  instantly  from  the  field 
of  Cannae  to  Rome.  Delay  on  that  occasion  could  be  thought 
only  to  have  deferred  victory;  this  blunder  sacrificed,  as  it 
seemed,  the  strength  needful  for  victory.  And  so  undoubt- 
edly, just  as  if  it  had  been  another  army  with  which  he  had 
left  Capua,  Hannibal  maintained  afterward  none  of  his  old  dis- 
cipline. In  fact,  entanglements  with  women  made  many  of  his 
men  return  thither,  and  the  moment  they  began  to  serve  under 
canvas,  and  trenching  and  other  military  duties  came  upon 
them,  body  and  spirit  alike  gave  way,  as  if  they  had  been  raw 
recruits.  From  that  time  during  the  whole  period  of  the 
summer  campaign,  numbers  would  steal  away  from  the  ranks 
without  leave,  and  it  was  Capua,  and  Capua  only,  that  was  the 
hiding-place  of  the  deserters. 

As  winter  gradually  relaxed,  Hannibal  marched  his  sol- 
diers out  of  their  quarters,  and  went  back  to  Casilinum. 
Though  there  had  been  a  cessation  from  all  attacks  on  the 
place,  still  the  prolonged  blockade  had  reduced  the  inhabitants 
and  the  garrison  to  the  extremity  of  want.  The  Roman  camp 
was  under  the  command  of  Tiberius  Sempronius,  as  the  dicta- 
tor had  gone  to  Rome  to  renew  the  auspices.  Marcellus  was 
himself  eager  to  relieve  the  besieged,  but  he  was  detained  alike 
by  the  swollen  waters  of  the  river  Vulturnus  and  the  entrea- 
ties of  the  citizens  of  Nola  and  Acerrae,  who  were  in  dread  of 
the  Campanians,  should  the  Roman  force  retire.  Sempronius 
merely  watched  Casilinum,  without  attempting  any  move- 
ment, as  the  dictator's  instructions  were  that  he  was  not  to  en- 
gage in  any  operations  during  his  absence.  Yet  the  news  he 
received  from  Casilinum  was  such  as  might  easily  overcome 
the  utmost  patience.  It  appeared,  in  fact,  that  some,  rather 
than  endure  their  hunger,  had  flung  themselves  from  the  walls, 
while  others  stood  on  them  unarmed,  with  their  bare  bodies 
exposed  to  the  blows  of  missiles.  All  this  Sempronius  bore 


376  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

with  impatience.  As  he  dared  not  fight  without  orders  from 
the  dictator  (though  fight  he  saw  he  must,  if  he  was  openly  to 
get  corn  into  the  place),  and  as  there  was  no  other  hope  of 
introducing  corn  secretly,  he  collected  grain  from  all  the 
neighbouring  country,  filled  a  number  of  casks  with  it,  and 
sent  a  message  to  the  commander  at  Casilinum  to  have  any 
casks  stopped  which  the  river  floated  down.  The  following 
night,  when  all  were  watching  the  stream,  intent  on  the  hopes 
held  out  by  the  Roman  message,  the  casks  floated  down  the 
mid-channel  of  the  river,  and  the  corn  was  equally  distributed 
among  the  entire  population.  The  same  thing  was  done  on 
the  next  day  and  the  day  after.  It  was  by  night  that  the  casks 
were  despatched,  and  by  night  that  they  arrived;  thus  the 
enemy's  sentries  were  eluded. 

After  a  time  the  river  became  more  than  usually  rapid 
from  continuous  rains,  and  drove  the  casks  by  a  cross  eddy 
to  the  side  guarded  by  the  enemy.  There  they  were  seen, 
stranded  in  beds  of  willow  which  grew  on  the  banks,  and  the 
matter  being  reported  to  Hannibal,  he  set  a  stricter  watch, 
so  that  nothing  sent  to  the  town  down  the  Vulturnus  might 
escape  him.  Nevertheless,  a  vast  quantity  of  walnuts,  thrown 
out  of  the  Roman  camp,  and  floated  down  the  middle  of  the 
stream,  was  caught  in  wicker  nets.  At  last  the  inhabitants 
were  reduced  to  such  want  that  they  tried  to  chew  leathern 
thongs  and  the  hides  off  their  shields,  steeped  in  hot  water, 
and  scrupled  not  to  devour  mice,  or,  indeed,  any  living  crea- 
ture; even  every  kind  of  grass  and  roots  they  tore  up  from 
the  bottom  of  their  walls.  The  enemy,  having  ploughed  up 
all  the  grass-grown  surface  outside  the  ramparts,  they  sowed 
it  with  rape,  upon  which  Hannibal  exclaimed,  "  Am  I  to  sit 
still  before  Casilinum  till  those  seeds  grow  ?  "  He  who  hither- 
to had  not  listened  to  a  word  about  terms,  now  at  last  allowed 
them  to  discuss  with  him  the  ransom  of  free-born  citizens. 
Seven  ounces  of  gold  was  the  price  agreed  on  for  each.  Hav- 
ing received  a  guarantee  of  safety,  they  surrendered.  They 
were  kept  in  chains  till  all  the  gold  was  paid.  Then  they  were 
allowed  to  go  back  in  good  faith.  This  is  more  probable  than 
that  they  were  charged  by  the  cavalry  as  they  were  leaving, 
and  cut  to  pieces.  Most  of  them  were  natives  of  Prseneste. 
Out  of  five  hundred  and  seventy  who  were  in  the  garrison, 
somewhat  less  than  half  had  perished  by  hunger  or  the  sword ; 
the  rest  returned  in  safety  to  Praeneste  with  their  officer,  Mar- 
cus Anicius,  who  had  formerly  been  a  clerk.  His  statue  com- 
memorated the  events,  set  up,  as  it  was,  in  the  forum  at  Prae- 
neste,  mailed,  clad  in  a  toga,  and  with  the  head  covered,  and 


B.  C.  216]  SURRENDER   OF   CASILINUM  377 

there  were  three  standards  with  this  inscription  on  a  bronze 
plate :  "  Marcus  Anicius  vowed  this  vow  for  the  soldiers  who 
served  in  garrison  at  Casilinum."  The  same  inscription  was 
written  under  three  standards  deposited  in  the  Temple  of 
Fortune. 

The  town  of  Casilinum  was  restored  to  the  Campanians 
and  garrisoned  by  a  force  of  seven  hundred  men  from  Hanni- 
bal's army,  that  it  might  not  be  attacked  by  the  Romans  after 
the  withdrawal  of  the  Carthaginians.  The  Roman  senate 
voted  double  pay  and  five  years'  exemption  from  service  to 
the  soldiers  from  Praeneste.  When  the  Roman  franchise  was 
offered  them  for  their  valour,  they  elected  to  make  no  change 
in  their  condition.  History  is  less  clear  as  to  the  treatment  of 
the  citizens  of  Perusia,  as  no  light  is  thrown  upon  it  by  any 
monument  of  their  own,  or  by  any  vote  of  the  Romans. 

At  this  same  time  the  people  of  Petelia,1  the  only  Bruttian 
community  which  had  been  steadfast  to  its  friendship  with 
Rome,  were  assailed,  not  only  by  the  Carthaginians,  who  were 
in  occupation  of  their  country,  but  also  by  the  other  Bruttians, 
from  whose  cause  they  had  separated  themselves.  Being 
quite  unable  to  hold  out  against  their  troubles,  they  sent  en- 
voys to  Rome  to  beg  for  protection.  The  entreaties  and  tears 
of  these  men,  who  had  burst  into  doleful  complainings  at  the 
doors  of  the  senate-house,  where  they  were  told  that  they  must 
take  care  of  themselves,  moved  the  senators  and  the  commons 
to  the  deepest  commiseration.  Again  the  question  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  senate  by  the  praetor  Marcus  ^Emilius,  and  after 
an  anxious  review  of  the  resources  of  the  empire,  they  were 
constrained  to  confess  that  they  had  no  longer  any  means 
of  protecting  distant  allies.  They  bade  them  return  home; 
they  had  done  all  that  loyalty  demanded ;  and  they  must 
now  face  their  position,  and  do  the  best  they  could  for  them- 
selves. 

As  soon  as  the  result  of  the  embassy  was  reported  at  Pete- 
lia, such  sudden  grief  and  terror  overwhelmed  their  senate, 
that  some  proposed  flight  and  the  desertion  of  their  city,  each 
man  to  escape  as  he  could,  while  some  were  for  joining  the 
other  Bruttians,  and  through  their  intervention  surrendering 
to  Hannibal.  That  party,  however,  prevailed  which  con- 
tended that  nothing  was  to  be  done  hurriedly  and  rashly,  and 
that  they  ought  to  reconsider  the  matter.  Next  day  it  was 
discussed  with  less  agitation,  and  it  was  decided,  through  the 
influence  of  the  aristocracy,  that  everything  was  to  be  re- 

1  North  of  Croton,  near  the  Promontory  of  Crimesa,  now  Punta  dell' 
Alice.— D.  O. 


378  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

moved  from  the  country,  and  that  the  city  and  its  walls  were 
to  be  strengthened  for  defence. 

Despatches  came  to  Rome  about  the  same  time  from  Sicily 
and  Sardinia.  The  despatch  from  Titus  Otacilius,  pro-praetor 
of  Sicily,  was  first  read  out  before  the  senate.  It  stated  that 
Lucius  Furius,  the  praetor,  had  arrived  at  Lilybaeum  with  a 
fleet  from  Africa;  that  he  was  severely  wounded  and  in  the 
utmost  danger  of  his  life;  that  the  troops  and  seamen  had 
neither  pay  nor  corn  from  day  to  day,  and  that  there  were  no 
means  of  furnishing  it.  He  strongly  advised  them  to  send 
such  supplies  as  soon  as  possible,  and  if  they  thought  fit,  one 
of  the  new  praetors  as  successor  to  himself. 

A  despatch  to  much  the  same  effect  as  to  soldiers'  pay  and 
corn  was  sent  by  Aulus  Cornelius  Mammula,  pro-praetor  of 
Sardinia.  Both  he  and  Otacilius  received  for  answer  that 
there  were  no  means  of  sending  either,  and  they  were  bidden 
to  do  their  best  for  their  fleets  and  armies.  Otacilius  having 
sent  envoys  to  Hiero,  the  only  remaining  stay  of  the  Roman 
people,  obtained  from  him  as  much  money  as  he  required  for 
pay,  and  corn  for  six  months.  Cornelius  in  Sardinia  received 
liberal  contributions  from  the  allied  communities.  At  Rome, 
too,  in  consequence  of  the  scarcity  of  money,  three  finance- 
commissioners  were  appointed  on  the  proposal  of  Marcus 
Minucius,  tribune  of  the  commons.  They  were  Lucius  ^mil- 
ius  Papius,  who  had  been  consul  and  censor,  Marcus  Atilius 
Regulus,  who  had  been  twice  consul,  and  Lucius  Scribonius 
Libo,  who  was  then  tribune  of  the  commons.  Two  commis- 
sioners were  also  appointed,  Marcus  and  Caius  Atilius,  for  the 
dedication  of  the  Temple  of  Concord,  which  had  been  vowed 
by  the  praetor  Lucius  Manlius.  And  there  was  an  election  of 
three  pontiffs,  Quintus  Caecilius  Metellus,  Quintus  Fabius 
Maximus,  and  Quintus  Fabius  Flaccus,  into  the  places  of 
Publius  Scantinius,  who  had  died,  of  Lucius  ^Emilius  Paullus, 
the  consul,  and  Quintus  ^Elius  Paetus,  both  of  whom  had  fallen 
in  the  battle  of  Cannae. 

The  senators  having,  as  far  as  it  was  possible  for  human 
forethought,  made  up  for  the  losses  which  fortune  had  inflicted 
on  them  by  a  succession  of  disasters,  began  at  last  to  look 
anxiously  to  themselves,  to  the  solitude  of  the  senate-house, 
and  the  scanty  number  of  those  who  met  for  public  business. 
Indeed,  since  the  consulship  of  Lucius  ^Emilius  and  Caius 
Flaminius,  the  list  of  senators  had  not  been  revised,  al- 
though during  those  five  years  so  large  a  number  had  been 
swept  off  in  the  reverses  of  war,  not  to  speak  of  ordinary  casu- 
alties to  individuals.  At  the  urgent  demand  of  all,  the  matter 


B.  C.  216]  FILLING  UP  THE  SENATE  379 

was  brought  forward  for  discussion  by  the  praetor,  Marcus 
^milius,  the  dictator  having  left  Rome  for  the  army  immedi- 
ately after  the  loss  of  Casilinum.  Spurius  Carvilius  then  in  a 
long  speech  deplored  the  paucity,  or  rather  absolute  dearth, 
of  citizens  out  of  whom  senators  could  be  chosen,  and  went  on 
to  say  that,  to  fill  up  the  number  of  the  senate  and  to  bind  to 
themselves  more  closely  the  Latin  communities,  he  recom- 
mended as  a  most  important  step  the  granting  of  the  franchise 
to  two  senators  out  of  each  of  these  communities,  should  the 
Roman  senate  approve,  and  their  election  into  the  place  of 
deceased  senators. 

The  senate  heard  the  proposal  with  as  much  impatience  as 
they  had  formerly  listened  to  the  demand  of  the  Latins  them- 
selves. A  murmur  of  indignation  ran  through  the  whole  sen- 
ate-house, Manlius  especially  exclaiming,  "  Even  now  there  is 
a  man  of  that  same  stock  from  which  sprang  that  consul  in 
the  days  of  old  who  threatened  to  slay  with  his  own  hand  any 
Latin  whom  he  saw  in  the  house."  Quintus  Fabius  Maxi- 
mus  replied,  that  never  had  anything  been  mentioned  in  the 
senate  at  a  more  inappropriate  time  than  this  allusion,  cal- 
culated, as  it  was,  additionally  to  disturb  the  minds  of  the 
allies,  just  while  their  temper  was  so  undecided,  and  their  loy- 
alty was  wavering ;  that  this  rash  speech  of  a  single  man  ought 
to  be  buried  in  a  universal  silence ;  and  indeed,  if  ever  there 
had  been  in  the  senate-house  a  secret  so  sacred  as  to  require 
silence,  this  above  all  things  should  be  hidden,  concealed,  for- 
gotten, regarded  as  unsaid. 

This  quashed  all  further  mention  of  the  subject.  It  was 
decided  to  appoint,  as  dictator  to  revise  the  senatorian  roll,  a 
man  who  had  previously  been  censor,  and  indeed  the  oldest 
of  the  ex-censors  who  were  living.  A  vote  was  also  passed  to 
summon  the  consul  Caius  Terentius  to  nominate  the  dictator. 
Terentius  hurried  back  to  Rome  by  forced  marches  from 
Apulia,  where  he  left  a  garrison,  and  on  the  following  night, 
as  was  customary,1  he  named  Marcus  Fabius  Buteo  dictator 
for  six  months,  without  a  master  of  the  horse,  in  accordance 
with  the  senate's  resolution. 

Having  mounted  the  rostrum  with  his  lictors,  Fabius  said : 
"  I  do  not  approve  of  there  being  two  dictators  at  one  time,  a 
thing  never  done  before,  or  of  being  dictator  myself  without 
a  master  of  the  horse ;  or  of  the  censor's  authority  being  cen- 
tred in  one  man,  in  the  same  man  indeed  for  a  second  time; 

1  The  nomination  of  a  dictator  took  place  in  the  dead  of  night,  ap- 
parently without  witnesses,  so  that  no  interruption  might  vitiate  the 
auspices. — D.  O. 


380  LlVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  216 

or  of  giving  supreme  power  for  six  months  to  a  dictator,  unless 
he  is  appointed  to  carry  on  the  government.  When  any  trans- 
gression of  due  limits  has  been  occasioned  by  fate,  circum- 
stances, or  necessity,  I  will  myself  fix  a  limit.1  I  will  not 
remove  from  the  senate  any  of  those  whom  the  censors, 
Caius  Flaminius  and  Lucius  ^Emilius,  chose  into  that  body; 
I  shall  merely  require  the  names  to  be  copied  and  read  out, 
as  I  do  not  wish  a  verdict  or  decision  on  a  senator's  character 
to  rest  with  one  man.  The  places  of  deceased  senators  I  will 
so  fill  up  as  to  show  that  I  am  guided  by  a  preference  of  class 
to  class,  not  of  individual  to  individual." 

After  reading  out  the  list  of  the  old  senate,  Fabius  first 
chose  into  the  places  of  deceased  members,  all  who  sub- 
sequently to  the  censorship  of  Lucius  yEmilius  and  Caius 
Flaminius  had  held  the  higher  curule  offices,  but  had  not  yet 
been  admitted  senators,2  taking  them  in  the  order  of  their  pre- 
vious appointments ;  then,  such  as  had  been  aediles,  tribunes 
of  the  commons,  and  quaestors.  Next,  he  made  his  selection 
from  those  who  had  not  indeed  held  office,  but  who  had  the 
spoils  of  an  enemy3  set  up  in  their  houses,  or  who  had  obtained 
a  crown  for  saving  a  citizen's  life.  Having  thus  added  to  the 
senate  a  hundred  and  seventy-seven  members,  he  at  once  re- 
tired from  office,  and  stepped  down  from  the  rostrum  a  private 
citizen,  his  lictors  having  had  orders  to  depart.  And  then 
he  mingled  with  the  groups  of  citizens  who  were  transacting 
their  private  business,  purposely  thus  passing  away  the  time 
that  he  might  not  take  them  from  the  forum  to  escort  him 
home.4  But  notwithstanding  this  delay,  men's  interest  in  him 
did  not  die  away,  and  they  attended  him  to  his  house  in 
crowds.  On  the  following  night  the  consul  went  back  to  his 
army  without  informing  the  senate,  that  he  might  not  be  de- 
tained at  Rome  on  account  of  the  elections. 

Next  day  the  senate,  on  being  consulted  by  the  praetor, 
Marcus  Pomponius,  passed  a  resolution  to  communicate  with 
the  dictator  and  request  that,  if  he  thought  it  for  the  public 
good,  he  would  come  to  Rome  with  the  master  of  the  horse 
and  the  praetor  Marcus  Marcellus  to  appoint  new  consuls. 
The  senators  would  then  be  able  to  learn  from  their  own  lips 
what  was  the  position  of  the  state  and  to  take  measures  ac- 
cordingly. All  came  who  were  summoned,  leaving  behind 

1  The  text  of  this  sentence  is  in  dispute,  and  the  suggested  readings 
are  all  vague  and  unsatisfactory. — D.  O. 

9  These  were  entitled  to  the  honour. — D.  O. 

*  That  is,  slain  by  him  in  battle  or  single  combat. — D.  O. 

4  A  customary  compliment. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  216]         DEFEAT   OF   THE    ARMY   IN   GAUL  381 

them  officers  to  command  the  legions.  The  dictator  after  a 
few  modest  words  about  himself  claimed  most  of  the  glory  for 
Tiberius  Sempronius  Gracchus,  the  master  of  the  horse,  and 
then  gave  notice  of  the  elections,  in  which  were  to  be  ap- 
pointed consuls,  Lucius  Postumius,  for  a  third  time  in  his 
absence,  who  then  held  the  province  of  Gaul,  and  Tiberius 
Sempronius  Gracchus,  who  was  master  of  the  horse  and 
curule  aedile.  The  new  praetors  were  Marcus  Valerius  Lae- 
vinus,  Appius  Claudius  Pulcher,  Quintus  Fulvius  Flaccus, 
and  Quintus  Mucius  Scsevola.  The  dictator,  having  ap- 
pointed these  magistrates,  returned  to  his  army  in  winter 
quarters  at  Teanum,1  leaving  the  master  of  the  horse  at  Rome, 
who  being  about  to  enter  on  office,  might  take  the  senate's 
opinion  as  to  the  levy  and  equipment  of  armies  for  the  com- 
ing year. 

Just  when  they  were  most  busy  with  these  matters,  a  fresh 
disaster  was  reported,  for  fate  heaped  calamity  on  calamity 
that  year.  Lucius  Postumius,  the  consul  elect,  it  was  reported, 
had  been  destroyed  in  Gaul,  together  with  his  army.  He  was 
about  to  march  his  troops  through  a  vast  forest,  which  the 
Gauls  called  Litana.  On  its  right  and  left  sides,  along  the 
Roman  route,  the  Gauls  had  cut  the  trees  in  such  a  manner 
that  though  they  would  stand,  if  undisturbed,  they  must  fall 
at  the  impulse  of  a  slight  blow.  Postumius  had  two  Roman 
legions,  and  had  raised  from  the  coasts  of  the  Upper  Sea  such 
a  force  of  allies  that  he  marched  into  the  enemy's  country 
with  twenty-five  thousand  armed  men.  Having  posted  them- 
selves on  the  borders  of  the  forest,  the  Gauls  gave  a  push  to 
the  outermost  of  the  trees  which  they  had  undermined,  the 
moment  the  army  entered  the  pass.  One  tree  fell  on  another, 
itself  insecure  and  barely  standing,  and  arms,  men,  and  horses, 
were  overwhelmed  on  both  sides  by  the  falling  mass,  so  that 
scarce  ten  men  escaped.  Most  of  them  having  been  killed  by 
the  trunks  of  the  trees  or  by  broken  boughs,  the  Gauls  who 
occupied  the  whole  forest  in  armed  force,  slaughtered  the  re- 
mainder, whom  the  unexpected  disaster  had  confounded.  Out 
of  that  vast  host  a  few  only  were  taken  prisoners ;  these  were 
making  for  a  bridge  over  a  river,  and  were  intercepted  by  the 
enemy,  by  whom  the  bridge  had  been  previously  secured. 
There  Postumius  fell,  fighting  with  all  his  might  to  save  him- 
self from  capture.  The  Boii  bore  in  triumph  the  spoils  they 
had  taken  from  the  general's  person,  and  his  head,  which  they 
had  cut  off,  to  a  temple  reputed  the  most  sacred  in  their  coun- 
try. Then  having  after  their  fashion  cleared  out  the  con- 

1  Now  Civitati. — D.  O. 


382  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

tents  of  the  head,  they  set  the  skull  in  gold,  and  it  served  them 
as  a  sacred  vessel  for  libations  in  their  solemn  rites.  It  was 
also  used  as  a  drinking-cup  by  the  priest  and  by  the  ministers 
of  the  temple.  The  plunder  too  taken  by  the  Gauls  was  as 
great  as  their  victory.  For  though  most  of  the  beasts  were 
crushed  by  the  downfall  of  the  trees,  all  else,  as  nothing  was 
lost  in  the  confusion  of  flight,  was  found  strewn  along  the  line 
where  the  army  lay. 

On  the  news  of  this  calamity,  the  citizens  were  for  many 
days  in  such  alarm  that  all  shops  were  shut,  and  a  solitude  as 
of  night  reigned  through  Rome.  The  senate  assigned  to  the 
aediles  the  business  of  going  round  the  city  and  ordering  the 
shops  to  be  opened,  and  the  display  of  public  grief  to  be  with- 
drawn from  the  streets.  Tiberius  Sempronius  then  called  the 
senate  and  spoke  words  of  comfort  and  encouragement  to  the 
senators.  They  who  had  not  succumbed  under  the  catastrophe 
of  Cannae,  he  said,  must  not  let  themselves  be  cowed  by  smaller 
misfortunes.  If  only  matters  went  prosperously,  as  regarded 
the  Carthaginian  foe  and  Hannibal,  and  this  he  hoped  for 
the  future,  the  war  with  the  Gauls  might  be  safely  disregarded 
and  deferred,  and  the  avenging  of  their  disastrous  blunder 
would  rest  with  Heaven  and  with  the  Roman  people.  It  was 
the  Carthaginian  foe,  and  the  armies  with  which  they  must 
wage  the  war  against  him,  which  ought  now  to  be  the  subject 
of  their  deliberations  and  discussions. 

Sempronius  himself  first  stated  in  detail  what  infantry  and 
cavalry,  what  force  of  citizens  and  of  allies,  composed  the  dic- 
tator's army.  Marcellus  next  fully  explained  the  total  number 
of  his  own  troops.  Inquiry  was  made  of  well-informed  per- 
sons as  to  the  force  which  the  consul,  Caius  Terentius,  had  in 
Apulia.  There  was  no  attempt  at  calculating  how  consular 
armies  of  adequate  strength  x  for  such  a  war  were  to  be  made 
up,  and  it  was  therefore  decided  to  let  Gaul  alone  for  that  year, 
notwithstanding  that  a  just  resentment  suggested  action. 
The  dictator's  army  was  assigned  to  the  consul.  As  for  the 
army  of  Marcellus,  it  was  agreed  that  such  of  the  soldiers  as 
had  been  in  the  flight  at  Cannes,  should  be  transferred  to  Sicily 
and  serve  there,  as  long  as  war  continued  in  Italy.  Thither 
also  all  the  feeblest  men  in  the  dictator's  legions  were  to  be 
removed  without  any  fixed  period  of  service,  except  those  who 
had  been  through  the  prescribed  number  of  campaigns.  The 
two  city  legions  were  given  to  the  consul  who  should  have 
been  elected  in  the  room  of  Lucius  Postumius.  It  was  re- 

1  That  is,  armies  of  two  legions  each  with  the  regular  quotas  of  allies. 
— D.  O. 


B.  C.  216]  STATE   OF   AFFAIRS   IN   SPAIN  383 

solved  to  appoint  him  as  soon  as  it  could  be  done  without  dis- 
regard of  the  auspices.  Two  legions  likewise  were  to  be  sum- 
moned from  Sicily,  each  at  the  earliest  opportunity,  and  out 
of  these  the  consul  to  whom  might  fall  the  command  of  the 
city  legions,  was  to  take  as  many  soldiers  as  he  might  require. 
The  consul,  Caius  Terentius,  was  to  have  his  powers  ex- 
tended for  the  ensuing  year,  and  there  was  to  be  no  reduction 
in  the  numbers  of  the  army  which  he  had  for  the  defence  of 
Apulia. 

During  these  movements  and  preparations  in  Italy,  the 
war  in  Spain  went  on  as  vigorously  as  ever.  Up  to  this  time, 
however,  it  was  favourable  to  the  Romans.  Publius  and 
Cneius  Scipio  had  divided  their  forces,  Cneius  conducting 
operations  by  land,  Publius  by  sea.  The  Carthaginian  gen- 
eral, Hasdrubal,  who  distrusted  his  resources  in  both  arms, 
kept  himself  far  away  from  the  enemy,  seeking  safety  in  his 
distance  and  in  his  position,  till  after  long  and  urgent  en- 
treaty a  re-enforcement  of  four  thousand  infantry  and  five  hun- 
dred cavalry  was  sent  him  from  Africa.  Thus  at  last  with 
hopes  revived  he  moved  his  camp  nearer  the  foe,  and  person- 
ally directed  the  preparation  and  equipment  of  a  fleet  to  de- 
fend the  islands  and  the  coast.  He  was  busily  engaged  in 
carrying  out  this  new  movement  when  the  desertion  of  his 
ships'-captains  struck  him  with  dismay.  He  had  censured 
them  severely  for  abandoning  in  panic  his  fleet  on  the  Ebro, 
and  since  that  occasion  they  had  never  been  really  faithful 
either  to  their  commander  or  to  the  interests  of  Carthage. 
These  deserters  had  prompted  a  movement  among  the  tribe 
of  the  Tartesii,1  some  of  whose  towns  had  at  their  instigation 
revolted.  One  town  they  had  themselves  taken  by  assault. 
The  Carthaginian  arms  were  now  turned  from  the  Romans 
against  this  tribe,  and  Hasdrubal,  having  entered  the  enemy's 
country  with  an  invading  army,  resolved  to  attack  Chalbus,  a 
renowned  chief  of  the  Tartesii,  who  with  a  strong  force  was 
posted  in  his  camp  before  the  walls  of  the  town  which  a  few 
days  previously  had  been  captured.  Accordingly,  he  sent  on 
some  light  troops  in  advance  to  lure  the  enemy  into  fighting, 
and  scattered  some  of  his  infantry  throughout  the  surrounding 
country,  to  lay  it  waste  and  to  intercept  stragglers.  Thus  at 
one  and  the  same  moment  the  camp  was  in  commotion,  and  in 
the  country  round  there  were  flight  and  massacre.  But  after 
a  while,  making  their  way  back  to  the  camp  from  all  parts, 
and  by  every  road,  they  lost  their  fears  so  completely  that  they 
had  spirit  enough  not  only  to  defend  their  lines  but  even  to 
1  The  country  near  the  lower  course  of  the  Baetis. — D.  O. 


LIVY'S  ROMAN  "HISTORY  [B.C.  216 

challenge  the  enemy  to  battle.  They  rushed  out  of  the  camp 
in  armed  array,  dancing  in  their  native  fashion,  and  their  sud- 
den daring  struck  terror  into  the  foe  who  but  just  before  had 
been  himself  the  assailant.  Hasdrubal  upon  this  marched  his 
troops  up  a  hill  of  moderate  height,  further  protected  by  the 
barrier  of  a  stream,  and  hither  he  also  withdrew  the  light- 
armed  detachment  sent  on  in  advance  and  his  scattered  cav- 
alry. But  as  he  did  not  trust  much  either  to  the  hill  or  to  the 
river,  he  intrenched  his  camp.  While  this  mutual  fear  lasted, 
several  skirmishes  took  place ;  in  these  the  Numidian  trooper 
was  no  match  for  the  Spaniard,  or  the  Moor  with  his  dart  for 
his  shield-bearing  antagonist,  who  was  as  nimble  as  himself 
and  considerably  his  superior  in  resolute  courage  and  endur- 
ing strength. 

Finding  that  they  could  not  lure  the  Carthaginians  into  an 
engagement  by  showing  themselves  before  their  camp,  and 
that  to  storm  it  was  not  easy,  they  took  by  assault  the  town  of 
Ascua,  into  which  Hasdrubal  on  entering  the  enemy's  ter- 
ritory had  conveyed  corn  and  other  supplies,  and  they  pos- 
sessed themselves  of  all  the  surrounding  country.  By  this 
time,  whether  on  the  march  or  in  camp,  they  were  no  longer 
under  the  restraint  of  authority.  The  heedlessness  which,  as 
often  happens,  followed  on  success  was  perceived  by  Hasdru- 
bal. He  urged  his  men  to  fall  on  the  enemy,  all  dispersed 
and  out  of  their  ranks  as  they  were,  marched  down  the  hill 
and  advanced  on  their  camp  in  battle  array.  News  of  his  near 
approach  was  brought  by  bewildered  fugitives  from  watch- 
towers  and  sentry-posts,  and  there  was  a  general  call  to  arms. 
Every  man  snatched  up  his  weapons  and  rushed  instantly  into 
battle,  without  order  or  signal  or  military  formation.  The 
foremost  were  already  in  action,  while  others  were  running 
up  in  bands,  and  others  again  had  not  yet  quitted  their  camp. 
At  first,  however,  their  very  daring  dismayed  the  enemy. 
Soon  finding  that  they  had  charged  a  dense  mass,  themselves 
a  mere  handful,  and  that  they  were  far  too  few  to  be  safe,  they 
looked  back,  one  on  another,  and,  repulsed  on  every  side, 
formed  in  square.  With  limbs  in  close  contact  and  arms 
touching,  and  pressed  into  a  confined  space  in  which  they  had 
scarcely  room  to  move  their  weapons,  they  were  hemmed  in 
by  a  circle  of  the  enemy  and  cut  down  till  late  in  the  day.  A 
mere  fraction  of  them  made  a  rush  out  and  fled  to  the  forests 
and  mountains;  the  camp  too  was  abandoned  in  the  same 
panic,  and  the  whole  tribe  the  next  day  surrendered  itself. 

They  did  not  long,  however,  remain  at  peace.  Soon  after- 
ward instructions  came  from  Carthage  that  Hasdrubal,  at  the 


B.  C.  216]         HASDRUBAL  ORDERED   TO   ITALY  385 

earliest  opportunity,  was  to  lead  his  army  into  Italy.  The 
news,  as  soon  as  it  spread,  turned  nearly  all  men's  sympathies 
throughout  Spain  from  Carthage  to  Rome.  Hasdrubal  ac- 
cordingly at  once  sent  a  despatch  to  Carthage,  explaining  what 
injury  the  rumour  of  his  departure  had  caused.  If  he  were 
really  to  start  on  his  march,  he  wrote,  Spain  would  be  Roman 
territory  before  he  crossed  the  Ebro.  For  not  only  had  he 
neither  a  force  nor  a  general  to  leave  in  his  place,  but  the  Ro- 
man commanders  were  such,  that  with  equal  strength  it  was 
barely  possible  to  resist  them.  So,  if  they  had  any  care  for 
Spain,  they  must  send  some  one  to  succeed  him  with  a  strong 
army,  and  he  too,  even  supposing  that  all  went  prosperously, 
would  find  the  province  no  light  burden. 

Though  this  despatch  at  first  made  a  deep  impression  on 
the  Carthaginian  senate,  still,  as  Italy  was  first  and  chief  in 
their  thoughts,  they  would  have  no  change  as  regarded  Has- 
drubal and  his  troops.  Himilco  was  sent  with  a  thoroughly 
efficient  army  and  a  re-enforced  fleet  to  hold  and  secure  Spain 
by  land  and  sea.  As  soon  as  he  had  crossed  with  his  military 
and  naval  armament,  he  fortified  a  camp,  hauled  his  vessels 
ashore  and  surrounded  them  with  intrenchments.  With  some 
picked  cavalry  and  at  all  possible  speed,  he  then  made  his  way 
to  Hasdrubal,  equally  vigilant,  whether  the  temper  of  the 
tribes  through  which  he  passed  was  doubtful  or  hostile.  Hav- 
ing explained  the  orders  and  instructions  of  the  senate,  and 
having  been  advised  in  turn  how  the  war  ought  to  be  con- 
ducted in  Spain,  he  went  back  to  his  camp.  His  speed  more 
than  anything  else  insured  his  safety,  as  he  had  got  quite 
clear  from  the  country  before  the  people  could  unite. 

Hasdrubal  did  not  move  his  camp  till  he  had  exacted  con- 
tributions in  money  from  all  the  tribes  under  his  control,  for 
he  knew  well  that  Hannibal  had  in  some  cases  purchased  his 
passage  for  money,  that  he  had  procured  his  Gallic  auxiliaries 
simply  by  hiring  them,  and  that  had  he  attempted  such  a 
march  without  any  money  he  would  hardly  have  penetrated  as 
far  as  the  Alps.  So  he  hurriedly  called  in  money-contribu- 
tions and  marched  down  to  the  Ebro. 

When  the  Carthaginian  orders  and  the  march  of  Hasdru- 
bal came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Romans,  both  the  generals 
at  once  put  everything  else  aside,  united  their  forces  and  pre- 
pared to  oppose  and  resist  the  enemy's  plans.  For  they  were 
persuaded  that  should  such  a  general  as  Hasdrubal  with  his 
Spanish  army  effect  a  junction  with  Hannibal,  himself  alone  a 
foe  against  whom  Italy  could  hardly  stand,  it  would  be  the 
end  of  Rome's  empire.  Harassed  by  such  apprehensions,  they 

25 


386  LIVY'S   ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  216 

drew  their  armies  together  on  the  Ebro.  After  crossing  the 
river  and  holding  a  long  consultation  whether  they  should  con- 
front the  foe  or  be  satisfied  with  keeping  him  from  his  pro- 
posed march  by  attacking  Carthaginian  allies,  they  prepared 
for  an  attempt  on  a  town,  named  Ibera  from  the  neighbouring 
river,  then  the  richest  in  that  part  of  the  country.  Hasdrubal 
on  being  aware  of  this,  instead  of  giving  aid  to  his  allies,  pro- 
ceeded himself  to  advance  to  the  attack  of  a  town  which  had 
lately  put  itself  under  Roman  protection.  So  the  Romans 
abandoned  the  siege  already  begun,  and  turned  their  arms 
against  Hasdrubal  himself. 

For  a  few  days  the  hostile  camps  were  separated  by  an  in- 
terval of  five  miles,  and  there  were  some  trifling  skirmishes, 
without,  however,  any  marching  out  to  battle.  At  last  on  one 
and  the  same  day,  as  though  by  concert,  the  signal  for  action 
was  given  on  both  sides,  and  with  all  their  forces  they  ad- 
vanced into  the  open  plain.  The  Roman  army  was  drawn  up 
in  three  lines,  part  of  the  light  troops  being  posted  in  front  of 
the  first  line  and  part  behind  the  standards,  while  the  cavalry 
closed  in  the  wings.  Hasdrubal  strengthened  his  centre  with 
Spaniards,  placing  his  Carthaginians  on  the  right  wing,  his 
Africans  and  mercenary  auxiliaries  on  the  left.  He  stationed 
Numidian  troopers  close  to  the  Carthaginian  infantry  before 
one  wing,  and  the  rest  of  his  cavalry  near  the  Africans  in  front 
of  the  other.  All  his  Numidians,  however,  were  not  posted  on 
the  right  wing;  only  those  who,  like  the  circus-riders,  were 
trained  to  control  two  horses,  and  who,  when  the  battle  was 
at  its  hottest,  would  often  leap  in  all  their  accoutrements  from 
the  weary  to  the  fresh  steed ;  such  was  their  activity  and  so 
well  trained  was  their  breed  of  horses. 

It  was  thus  that  the  armies  were  drawn  up ;  the  hopes  of 
the  generals  on  either  side  were  almost  equally  confident,  as 
neither  in  numbers  nor  in  the  character  of  the  troops  was  there 
a  decided  superiority  with  either  Romans  or  Carthaginians. 
The  spirit  of  the  soldiery  differed  widely.  The  Romans, 
though  they  were  fighting  far  away  from  their  country,  had 
easily  been  convinced  by  their  officers  that  they  were  fighting 
for  Italy  and  Rome.  Consequently,  as  if  their  return  home 
depended  on  the  issue  of  the  battle,  they  had  resolved  in  their 
hearts  to  conquer  or  die.  Less  resolute  were  the  men  in  the 
other  army.  Most  of  them  were  Spaniards,  who  would  rather 
be  beaten  in  Spain  than  dragged  victorious  into  Italy.  And 
so  at  the  first  onset,  almost  before  the  javelins  had  been 
thrown,  the  centre  retreated,  and  when  the  Romans  charged 
them  with  great  impetuosity,  turned  and  fled.  The  battle  was 


B.  C.  216]  HASDRUBAL   DEFEATED  387 

quite  as  fierce  on  the  wings.  On  this  side  the  Carthaginian, 
on  that  the  African,  pressed  his  attack,  assailing  in  front  and 
rear  an  enemy  almost  surrounded.  But  the  Roman  army  by 
this  time  had  gathered  all  its  force  into  its  centre,  and  was 
sufficiently  strong  to  drive  back  the  enemy's  wings.  Thus 
there  were  two  distinct  battles,  in  each  of  which  the  Romans, 
being  superior  both  in  numbers  and  strength,  when  once  the 
enemy's  centre  had  been  broken,  were  decisively  victori- 
ous. A  vast  multitude  fell  on  the  field,  and,  but  for  the  pre- 
cipitate flight  of  the  Spaniards  almost  before  the  action  had 
begun,  there  would  have  been  very  few  survivors  out  of  the 
entire  army.  Between  the  cavalry  there  was  absolutely  no 
fighting,  for  the  Moors  and  Numidians,  as  soon  as  they  saw 
the  centre  give  way,  instantly  took  to  headlong  flight,  leaving 
the  wings  exposed,  and  even  driving  the  elephants  before 
them.  Hasdrubal  remained  on  the  field  till  all  was  over,  and 
then  escaped  with  a  handful  of  men  out  of  the  midst  of  the 
slaughter.  The  Romans  took  and  plundered  the  camp.  This 
battle  secured  for  Rome  the  allegiance  of  any  waverers  in 
Spain,  while  it  did  not  leave  Hasdrubal  the  hope  of  remaining 
in  the  country  with  tolerable  safety,  much  less  of  marching  his 
army  into  Italy.  All  this  having  been  made  known  at  Rome 
by  despatches  from  the  Scipios,  there  was  joy,  not  so  much 
at  the  victory  as  at  the  hindrance  of  Hasdrubal's  passage  into 
Italy. 

During  these  operations  in  Spain,  Petelia  in  Bruttium  was 
stormed  by  Himilco,  Hannibal's  chief  officer,  within  a  few 
months  after  the  beginning  of  the  siege.  The  victory  cost  the 
Carthaginians  much  blood  and  many  wounds,  and  it  was  the 
force  of  hunger  more  than  anything  else  which  conquered  the 
besieged.  After  having  devoured  all  their  corn,  and  the  flesh 
of  every  species  of  quadruped,  usual  or  unusual,  they  at  last 
prolonged  life  on  hides  of  leather,  on  grass  and  roots  and  the 
soft  bark  of  trees,  and  leaves  stripped  from  bushes.  Nor  were 
they  finally  captured  till  they  wanted  strength  to  stand  on  the 
walls  and  carry  their  arms.  Having  thus  recovered  Petelia, 
the  Carthaginian  general  marched  his  army  to  Consentia.1 
The  place  was  less  obstinately  defended,  and  in  a  few  days  he 
received  its  submission. 

About  the  same  time  a  Bruttian  army  invested  Croton,2  a 
Greek  city,  once  mighty  in  arms  and  fighting-men,  but  then 
brought  so  low  by  a  succession  of  great  disasters  that  less  than 

1  The  capital  of  the  Bruttii,  now  Cosenza. — D.  O. 

*  One  of  the  most  ancient  and  greatest  of  the  Greek  colonies,  now 
Cotrone. — D.  O. 


388  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.216-215 

two  thousand  citizens  of  all  ages  still  survived.  A  city  thus 
empty  of  defenders  fell  an  easy  prey  to  the  enemy.  The  cita- 
del only  was  saved,  whither  amid  the  confusion  of  the  storm- 
ing some  fled  out  of  the  midst  of  the  slaughter.  Locri,1  too, 
where  the  populace  was  betrayed  by  the  leading  citizens,  re- 
volted to  the  Bruttians  and  Carthaginians.  Rhegium  2  alone 
in  that  part  of  the  country  persisted  to  the  last  in  its  loyalty  to 
Rome  and  retained  its  independence.  The  same  inclination 
to  revolt  likewise  reached  Sicily,  and  even  the  house  of  Hiero 
did  not  keep  itself  wholly  free  from  desertion.  Gelon,  the  eld- 
est son  of  the  family,  despising  alike  his  father's  old  age  and 
the  alliance  of  Rome,  went  over  to  the  Carthaginians  after  the 
defeat  of  Cannae,  and  would  have  disturbed  Sicily  had  he  not 
been  carried  off,  while  he  was  arming  the  populace  and  excit- 
ing our  allies,  by  a  death  so  timely  that  it  actually  threw  sus- 
picion on  his  father. 

Such  were  the  events  of  the  year,  with  their  various  issues, 
in  Italy,  Sicily,  and  Spain.  At  its  close  Quintus  Fabius  Maxi- 
mus  asked  leave  of  the  senate  to  dedicate  the  temple,  which, 
when  dictator,  he  had  vowed  to  Venus  of  Eryx.  The  senate 
passed  a  resolution  that  Tiberius  Sempronius,  the  consul 
elect,  should,  as  soon  as  he  entered  on  office,  propose  to  the 
commons  a  vote  authorizing  Quintus  Fabius  to  be  one  of  two 
commissioners  for  the  purpose  of  its  dedication.  In  honour 
also  of  Marcus  vEmilius  Lepidus,  who  had  twice  been  consul 
and  augur,  his  three  sons,  Lucius,  Marcus,  and  Quintus,  gave 
in  the  forum  a  celebration  of  funeral  games  lasting  three  days, 
with  twenty-two  pairs  of  gladiators.  In  their  capacity  of  cu- 
rule  aediles,  Caius  Laetorius  and  Tiberius  Sempronius  Grac- 
chus, the  consul  elect,  who  during  his  sedileship  had  been 
master  of  the  horse,  celebrated  the  Roman  games,  the  cere- 
mony occupying  three  days.  The  plebeian  games  3  given  by 
the  aediles  Marcus  Aurelius  Cotta  and  Marcus  Claudius  Mar- 
cellus  were  thrice  solemnized.4  When  the  third  year  of  the 
Punic  war  came  round,  Tiberius  Sempronius  entered  on  his 
office  as  consul  on  the  first  of  March.  Quintus  Fulvius  Flac- 
cus,  who  had  previously  been  consul  and  censor,  and  Marcus 
Valerius  Laevinus,  held  respectively,  as  praetors,  the  home  and 
foreign  jurisdiction.  The  provinces  of  Sicily  and  Sardinia 
fell  to  Appius  Claudius  Pulcher  and  Quintus  Mucius  Scaevola. 

1  Another  Greek  colony. — D.  O. 
»  Now  Reggio.— D.  O. 

*  "  The  Roman  Games  "  were  held  by  the  curule  aediles  in  September, 
"The  Plebeian  Games"  by  the  plebeian  aediles  in  November. — D.  O. 
4  Presumably  on  account  of  irregularities. — D.  O. 


B.  c.  215]     PREPARATIONS   FOR  THE   NEW  YEAR  389 

The  commons  voted  to  Marcellus  all  the  powers  of  a  consul, 
as  he  alone  of  Roman  generals  since  the  disaster  of  Cannae 
had  conducted  operations  successfully  in  Italy. 

The  senate,  the  day  on  which  they  held  their  first  delibera- 
tion in  the  Capitol,  passed  a  resolution  that  out  of  the  double 
tax  demanded  that  year,  half  should  at  once  be  called  in,  and 
that  from  this,  immediate  pay  should  be  furnished  to  the  sol- 
diers, except  to  those  who  had  served  at  Cannae.  With  respect 
to  the  armies,  they  decided  that  Tiberius  Sempronius,  the  con- 
sul, should  appoint  a  day  on  which  the  two  city  legions  should 
muster  at  Cales,  whence  they  were  to  be  marched  to  Clau- 
dius's camp  on  Suessula.  The  legions  at  that  place,  of  which 
the  army  at  Cannae  had  mainly  consisted,  were  to  be  transport- 
ed under  Appius  Claudius,  the  praetor,  into  Sicily,  and  those 
in  Sicily  were  to  be  conveyed  to  Rome.  Marcus  Claudius 
Marcellus  was  despatched  to  the  army  which  on  the  day  ap- 
pointed was  to  assemble  at  Cales,  having  received  orders  to 
march  the  city  legions  to  Claudius's  camp.  Appius  Claudius 
sent  Maecilius  Croto,  as  his  lieutenant,  to  take  the  command 
of  the  old  army  and  to  conduct  it  to  Sicily. 

Men  waited  at  first  in  silent  expectation  for  the  consul  to 
hold  an  election  for  the  appointment  of  his  colleague,  but  when 
after  a  while  they  saw  that  Marcellus  had  been  purposely,  as  it 
were,  sent  out  of  the  way,  the  very  man  whom  above  all  others 
they  wished  to  be  made  consul  that  year  for  his  brilliant 
achievements  when  praetor,  angry  murmurs  arose  in  the  sen- 
ate-house. The  consul,  on  perceiving  this,  said,  "  Both  meas- 
ures, senators,  were  for  the  public  advantage,  the  despatch  of 
Marcus  Claudius  to  Campania  for  an  exchange  of  armies,  and 
the  not  giving  notice  of  the  elections  until  he  had  returned 
after  the  settlement  of  the  business  with  which  he  was  in- 
trusted, so  that  you  might  have  as  consul  the  man  demanded 
by  this  crisis  in  public  affairs  and  especially  desired  by  your- 
selves." Thus  nothing  was  said  about  the  elections  till  Mar- 
cellus returned. 

Meanwhile  two  commissioners  were  appointed,  Quintus 
Fabius  Maximus  and  Titus  Otacilius  Crassus,  for  the  dedica- 
tion, respectively,  of  the  Temples  of  Reason  l  and  of  Venus  of 
Eryx.  Both  stood  on  the  Capitol,  and  were  separated  only  by 
a  water  channel.  As  to  the  three  hundred  Campanian  knights 
who  after  loyally  serving  their  time  in  Sicily  had  come  to 

1  The  translation,  though  fairly  literal,  is  rather  unfortunate  in  view 
of  the  crazy  goddess  of  the  French  Revolution.  "The  Roman  Mens" 
was  the  personification  of  mind,  and  the  object  of  her  worship  was  that 
the  citizens  might  be  guided  by  right  and  justice. — D.  O. 


390  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [3.  c.  215 

Rome,  a  proposal  was  made  to  the  commons  that  they  should 
be  Roman  citizens,  and  likewise  burghers  of  Cumae,  reckoning 
from  the  day  previous  to  the  revolt  of  the  Campanian  com- 
munity from  Rome.  What  chiefly  prompted  the  motion  was 
the  assertion  of  the  men  themselves,  that  they  did  not  know 
to  what  people  they  belonged,  as  they  had  left  their  old  coun- 
try and  had  not  yet  been  duly  admitted  into  that  to  which  they 
had  returned. 

As  soon  as  Marcellus  came  back  from  the  army,  notice  was 
given  of  an  election  for  the  appointment  of  one  consul  in  the 
room  of  Lucius  Postumius.  Marcellus  was  chosen  with  the 
utmost  unanimity  to  enter  on  the  office  at  once,  but  thunder 
having  been  heard  at  the  moment  of  his  assumption  of  the  con- 
sulate, the  augurs  were  summoned,  and  pronounced  that  there 
was  in  their  opinion  a  flaw  in  his  election ;  and  the  senators 
generally  gave  out  that  the  appointment,  now  for  the  first  time, 
of  two  plebeian  consuls,  was  not  acceptable  to  the  gods.  Mar- 
cellus having  abdicated  office,  there  was  elected  in  his  place 
Fabius  Maximus,  now  consul  for  the  third  time. 

That  year  the  sea  glowed  like  fire ;  at  Sinuessa  a  cow  gave 
birth  to  a  colt ;  at  Lanuvium  blood  trickled  down  the  statues 
in  the  Temple  of  Juno  Sospita,  and  round  the  temple  there 
was  a  rain  of  stones.  For  the  last  portent  there  was  the  usual 
nine  days'  celebration  of  sacred  rites,  and  the  other  prodigies 
were  duly  expiated. 

The  consuls  now  divided  the  armies  between  them.  The 
army  at  Teanum,  which  had  been  under  the  dictator  Marcus 
Junius,  fell  to  Fabius,  Sempronius  taking  the  command  of  the 
volunteer  slaves  at  that  place,  with  twenty-five  thousand  of 
our  allies.  To  the  praetor  Marcus  Valerius  were  assigned  the 
legions  which  had  returned  from  Sicily,  and  Marcellus  was 
sent  with  a  consul's  powers  to  the  army  encamped  at  Sues- 
sula  for  the  protection  of  Nola.  The  praetors  of  Sicily  and 
Sardinia  started  for  those  provinces.  Public  notice  was  given 
by  the  consuls  that  whenever  they  summoned  a  meeting  of  the 
senate,  the  senators  and  all  who  had  the  privilege  of  speaking 
in  the  house  were  to  assemble  at  the  Capena  Gate.  Those 
praetors  whose  business  was  the  administration  of  justice  held 
their  courts  near  the  public  reservoir ;  here  all  litigants  were 
directed  to  answer  to  their  recognisances,  and  here  law  was 
administered  during  the  year. 

Carthage,  meanwhile,  whence  Mago,  Hannibal's  brother, 
was  on  the  point  of  crossing  into  Italy  with  twelve  thousand 
infantry,  five  hundred  cavalry,  twenty  elephants,  and  a  thou- 
sand talents  of  silver,  under  a  convoy  of  sixty  war-ships,  re- 


B.  C.  215]  THE   COMMANDS   ASSIGNED  391 

ceived  the  news  of  her  ill-successes  in  Spain  and  of  the  de- 
fection of  almost  all  the  tribes  in  that  country  to  Rome.  Some 
would  have  Mago  with  such  a  fleet  and  army  give  up  Italy  and 
turn  his  attention  to  Spain,  when  suddenly  the  hope  of  recov- 
ering Sardinia  brightened  the  prospect.  There  was,  they  were 
told,  but  a  small  Roman  force  there;  the  old  praetor,  Aulus 
Cornelius,  who  knew  the  province  thoroughly,  was  leaving, 
and  a  new  governor  was  expected.  Then,  too,  the  hearts  of 
the  people  were  weary  of  their  long  subjection;  last  year  the 
government  had  been  harsh  and  extortionate.  They  were 
crushed  by  heavy  taxes  and  unfair  contributions  of  corn,  and 
nothing  was  wanting  but  a  head  to  lead  them  in  revolt.  Such 
was  the  report  of  a  secret  embassy  sent  by  the  chief  inhabitants, 
the  scheme  having  been  organized  mainly  by  Hampsicora,  who 
was  then  by  far  the  first  man  in  influence  and  wealth.  This 
news  coming  almost  at  the  same  moment,  both  bewildered  and 
encouraged  them.  Mago  was  despatched  with  his  fleet  and 
forces  to  Spain,  and  Hasdrubal,  to  whom  they  had  voted  an 
army  nearly  equal  to  Mago's,  was  chosen  to  take  the  command 
in  Sardinia. 

At  Rome  the  consuls,  after  transacting  all  necessary  busi- 
ness in  the  city,  at  once  bestirred  themselves  for  war.  Tibe- 
rius Sempronius  gave  his  soldiers  notice  of  a  day  by  which 
they  were  to  assemble  at  Sinuessa,  and  Quintus  Fabius,  having 
first  consulted  the  senate,  issued  orders  that  every  one  was 
to  convey  his  corn  from  the  fields  into  fortified  towns  before 
the  first  of  June.  Whoever  failed  to  do  this  was  to  have  his 
estate  plundered,  his  slaves  sold  by  auction,  and  his  farm- 
buildings  burned.  Even  the  praetors  appointed  to  administer 
justice  were  not  exempted  from  military  duties.  The  praetor 
Valerius,  it  was  decided,  was  to  go  to  Apulia  and  succeed  to 
the  command  of  the  army  of  Terentius,  and,  as  soon  as  the 
legions  from  Sicily  had  arrived,  he  was  to  use  them  for  the 
defence  of  that  district,  and  send  the  troops  of  Terentius  to 
Tarentum  under  one  of  his  lieutenant-generals.  Twenty-five 
ships  were  also  given  him  with  which  to  guard  the  coast 
between  Brundisium  and  Tarentum.  The  praetor,  Quintus 
Fabius,  had  an  equal  number  for  the  defence  of  the  coasts  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Rome.  To  the  pro-consul,  Terentius 
Varro,  was  assigned  the  business  of  levying  troops  in  Picenum, 
and  of  defending  that  country.  Titus  Otacilius,  after  dedi- 
cating the  Temple  of  Reason  on  the  Capitol,  was  sent  to  Sicily 
with  the  fullest  powers,  as  admiral  of  the  fleet. 

All  kings  and  nations  were  now  attentively  observing  this 
struggle  between  the  two  most  powerful  peoples  of  the  world. 


392 


LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  215 


It  was  so  especially  with  Philip,  King  of  Macedon,  because  he 
was  comparatively  near  to  Italy,  being  separated  frorrj  it  only 
by  the  Ionian  Sea.  As  soon  as  he  heard  by  report  that  Han- 
nibal had  crossed  the  Alps,  while  rejoicing  in  the  war  that  had 
broken  out  between  the  Romans  and  the  Carthaginians,  his 
mind  wavered  as  to  the  nation  with  which  he  would  prefer  that 
victory  should  rest,  and  he  saw  that  their  relative  strength  was 
yet  doubtful.  When  a  third  battle  had  been  fought,  and  vic- 
tory a  third  time  was  with  the  Carthaginians,  he  inclined  to  the 
side  of  success,  and  sent  envoys  to  Hannibal.  Avoiding  the 
ports  of  Brundisium1  and  Tarentum,  because  they  were  held  by 
Roman  guard-ships,  they  landed  at  the  Temple  of  Juno  La- 
cinia.2  Thence  they  made  for  Capua,  through  Apulia,  and  fell 
into  the  midst  of  the  Roman  outposts.  They  were  taken  to 
Marcus  Valerius  Laevinus,  the  praetor,  who  had  his  camp  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Nuceria.  There  the  head  of  the  em- 
bassy, Xenophanes,  boldly  declared  that  he  had  been  sent  by 
King  Philip  to  contract  friendship  and  alliance  with  the  Roman 
people,  and  that  he  had  communications  to  make  to  the  con- 
suls and  to  the  senate  and  people  of  Rome.  Amid  the  revolts 
of  old  allies,  Valerius  was  overjoyed  at  a  new  alliance  with  so 
illustrious  a  prince,  and  treated  these  enemies  with  all  the 
courtesy  due  to  friends.  He  gave  them  an  escort  and  guides 
to  show  them  the  roads  carefully  and  tell  them  what  points  and 
what  passes  were  in  the  occupation  of  the  Romans  or  of  ene- 
mies. Xenophanes  passed  through  the  Roman  posts  into 
Campania,  and  thence  by  the  nearest  route  into  Hannibal's 
camp.  With  him  he  concluded  a  treaty  and  an  alliance  on  the 
following  terms :  King  Philip,  with  as  large  a  fleet  as  possible 
(it  seemed  that  he  was  about  to  equip  two  hundred  ships),  was 
to  cross  into  Italy  and  ravage  the  coasts ;  he  was  to  the  best  of 
his  power  to  make  war  by  land  and  sea.  The  war  over,  all 
Italy  with  Rome  itself  was  to  be  the  possession  of  the  Cartha- 
ginians and  Hannibal,  and  all  the  spoil  was  to  fall  to  Hannibal. 
Italy  being  thoroughly  conquered,  they  were  to  sail  to  Greece 
and  make  war  on  such  kings  as  they  pleased.  The  states  on 
the  mainland  and  the  islands  lying  off  Macedonia  were  to  be- 
long to  Philip  and  his  kingdom. 

Such  were  the  general  terms  of  the  treaty  concluded  be- 
tween the  Carthaginian  leader  and  the  Macedonian  envoys. 
Gisgo,  Bostar,  and  Mago,  who  had  been  sent  with  them  as 
envoys  to  obtain  the  security  of  the  king's  own  promise,  came 

1  Now  Brindisi.— D.  O. 

*  Southeast  of  Crotona,  on  the  promontory  of  Lacinium,  now  called 
Capo  delle  Colonne,  from  the  remains  of  the  temple. — D.  O. 


s.  c.  215]   CAPTURE  OF  THE  MACEDONIAN  ENVOYS     393 

to  the  same  place,  the  Temple  of  Juno  Lacinia,  where  a  ship 
was  waiting  concealed.  They  had  started,  and  were  out  at 
sea,  when  they  were  espied  by  the  Roman  fleet  that  guarded 
the  shores  of  Calabria.  Valerius  Flaccus  having  despatched 
some  light  vessels  to  pursue  and  bring  back  the  ship,  the 
king's  agents  at  first  attempted  flight,  but  as  soon  as  they  per- 
ceived that  they  were  inferior  in  speed,  they  gave  themselves 
up  to  the  Romans,  and  were  taken  before  the  admiral  of  the 
fleet.  He  asked  them  who  they  were,  whence  they  came,  and 
whither  they  were  going.  Xenophanes,  who  hitherto  had  been 
very  lucky,  began  at  first  to  make  up  a  false  story,  how  Philip 
had  sent  him  to  the  Romans,  and  that  he  had  found  his  way  to 
Marcus  Valerius,  that  being  the  only  safe  road.  He  had  not 
been  able  to  traverse  Campania,  as  it  was  beset  with  the  ene- 
my's forces.  Before  long,  the  Carthaginian  dress  and  manner 
of  Hannibal's  envoys  made  them  suspected,  and  when  they 
were  questioned,  their  speech  betrayed  them.  Upon  this,  their 
companions  were  taken  aside  and  intimidated,  and  then  a  de- 
spatch from  Hannibal  to  Philip  was  also  found,  with  the  stipu- 
lations between  the  Macedonian  king  and  the  Carthaginian 
general.  When  all  this  was  quite  clear,  it  was  thought  best  to 
convey  the  prisoners  and  their  company  as  soon  as  possible  to 
the  senate  or  to  the  consuls,  wherever  they  might  be.  For  this 
purpose  five  of  the  swiftest  vessels  were  picked  out,  and  Lucius 
Valerius  Antias  was  sent  in  command.  He  had  instructions 
to  divide  the  envoys  among  all  his  ships,  so  as  to  have  them 
in  separate  custody,  and  to  take  care  that  there  was  no  conver- 
sation or  communication  of  plans  among  them. 

At  this  same  time  Cornelius  Mammula,  on  leaving  his  prov- 
ince of  Sardinia,  described  at  Rome  the  state  of  affairs  in  the 
island.  All  were  thinking,  he  said,  of  war  and  revolt ;  Quin- 
tus  Mucius,  his  successor,  having,  on  his  arrival,  caught,  from 
the  unwholesome  condition  of  the  climate  and  the  springs, 
an  illness  that  was  troublesome  on  account  of  its  tediousness 
rather  than  on  account  of  its  danger,  would  long  be  unable 
to  sustain  the  burden  of  a  war.  The  army,  too,  though  strong 
enough  to  garrison  a  peaceful  province,  was  wholly  unequal 
to  the  war  which  seemed  on  the  point  of  breaking  out.  It 
was  accordingly  decreed  by  the  senate  that  Quintus  Fulvius 
Flaccus  should  raise  five  thousand  infantry  with  four  hundred 
cavalry,  and  arrange  for  the  transport  of  this  legion  to  Sar- 
dinia at  the  earliest  opportunity.  He  was  to  send  with  full 
military  powers  any  one  whom  he  thought  fit  to  conduct 
operations  till  Mucius  had  recovered.  Titus  Manlius  Tor- 
quatus,  who  had  been  twice  consul  and  censor,  and  who  in 


394  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  fr  c.  ±15 

his  consulship  had  subdued  Corsica,  was  despatched  on  this 
business.  About  the  same  time,  a  fleet  sent  from  Carthage 
to  Sardinia  under  the  command  of  Hasdrubal,  surnamed 
Calvus,  was  shattered  by  a  frightful  storm  and  driven  on  the 
Balearic  Isles.  The  vessels  were  hauled  ashore,  and  consider- 
able time  was  lost  while  they  were  being  repaired ;  so  severely 
damaged  were  their  hulls,  as  well  as  their  rigging. 

While  the  war  in  Italy  after  the  battle  of  Cannae  somewhat 
languished,  as  the  strength  of  one  side  was  broken  and  the 
energies  of  the  other  were  relaxed,  the  Campanians  attempted 
by  themselves  to  get  control  over  Cumae.  First  they  sought 
to  lure  the  citizens  into  revolt  from  Rome.  This  not  succeed- 
ing, they  devised  a  stratagem  for  reducing  them.  All  the 
Campanians  held  a  sacrifice  at  regular  intervals  at  Hamae. 
They  informed  the  people  of  Cumae  that  the  Campanian  senate 
would  attend  the  ceremony,  and  requested  the  presence  of  the 
Cuman  senate  for  joint  deliberation,  in  order  that  both  com- 
munities might  have  the  same  allies  and  the  same  foes.  They 
should  have,  they  said,  an  armed  force  on  the  spot,  to  guard 
against  any  danger  from  Romans  or  Carthaginians.  The 
citizens  of  Cumae,  though  they  suspected  mischief,  offered  no 
objection,  thinking  thus  to  veil  a  crafty  plan  of  their  own. 
Meanwhile  Tiberius  Sempronius,  the  consul,  after  reviewing 
his  army  at  Sinuessa,  it  being  there  that  it  was  bidden  to  as- 
semble on  the  day  fixed,  crossed  the  river  Vulturnus,  and  en- 
camped near  Liternum.1  As  there  was  nothing  to  do  in  the 
camp,  he  compelled  his  soldiers  to  sally  forth  repeatedly  in 
battle  array,  that  the  raw  recruits,  who  formed  the  chief  part 
of  the  slave  volunteers,  might  be  trained  to  follow  the  stand- 
ards and  to  recognise  their  ranks  in  action.  Amid  all  this, 
it  was  the  general's  principal  object,  and  he  had  instructed 
his  lieutenants  and  officers  to  the  same  effect,  to  have  no 
taunts  flung  at  any  one  about  his  former  condition,  such  as 
might  sow  strife  among  the  men.  The  veteran  should  allow 
himself  to  stand  on  the  same  level  with  the  recruit,  the  free 
man  with  the  slave,  holding  all  sufficiently  worthy  and  well 
born  to  whom  the  people  of  Rome  had  intrusted  their  arms 
and  standards.  The  same  fortune  which  had  compelled  this 
state  of  things,  compelled  them  to  maintain  its  existence. 
Such  were  the  directions  of  the  officers,  and  they  were  ob- 
served by  the  soldiers  with  as  much  zeal  as  they  were  given. 
And  before  long  the  hearts  of  all  had  grown  together  in  a 
union  so  harmonious  that  it  was  almost  wholly  forgotten  what 
a  man's  condition  in  life  had  been  before  he  became  a  soldier. 

1  Tor  di  Patria.— D.  O. 


B.  c.  2is]     GRACCHUS  ROUTS  THE   CAMPANIANS  395 

Gracchus,  while  thus  engaged,  was  informed  by  envoys 
from  Cumae  of  the  nature  of  the  embassy  sent  a  few  days  before 
by  the  Campanians,  and  of  their  own  reply  to  it.  A  three 
days'  festival  began  from  that  date,  and  not  only  the  Campa- 
nian  senate  were  to  be  present,  but  also  their  camp  and  army. 
After  ordering  the  people  of  Cumae  to  carry  all  their  property 
from  the  country  into  the  city,  and  to  keep  within  their  walls, 
Gracchus  himself,  on  the  day  before  the  Campanians  were  to 
hold  their  customary  sacrifice,  moved  his  camp  to  Cumae,  from 
which  Hamas  was  distant  about  three  miles.  The  Campani- 
ans had  already  flocked  thither  in  great  numbers,  as  had  been 
arranged,  and  not  far  off,  Marius  Alfius,  the  Medixtuticus, 
that  is,  the  first  magistrate  in  Campania,  was  secretly  en- 
camped with  fourteen  thousand  armed  men,  more  intent  on 
preparing  the  sacrifice  and  the  stratagem  that  was  to  be  exe- 
cuted during  the  celebration  than  on  fortifying  his  camp  or 
any  military  work.  For  three  days  the  sacrifices  went  on  at 
Hamae.  The  rites  were  performed  at  night,  but  so  as  to  be 
completed  before  midnight.  This  was  the  moment  of  which 
Gracchus  resolved  to  take  advantage.  He  posted  sentries  at 
the  gates,  that  no  one  might  be  able  to  disclose  his  plans,  com- 
pelled his  soldiers  to  recruit  their  strength  and  give  them- 
selves to  repose  up  to  the  tenth  hour  of  the  day,  that  they 
might  be  ready  to  assemble  at  nightfall,  and  ordered  the  ad- 
vance at  the  first  watch.  After  marching  in  still  silence,  he 
reached  Hamae  at  midnight  and  burst  at  every  gate  simultane- 
ously into  the  Campanian  camp,  negligently  guarded,  as  was 
to  be  expected,  during  a  vigil.  Some  he  slew  as  they  lay 
stretched  in  slumber,  others  as  they  were  returning  unarmed 
from  the  celebration  of  the  sacred  rites.  In  that  night's  fray 
fell  more  than  two  thousand  men,  with  the  commander 
himself,  Marius  Alfius.  Thirty-four  military  standards  were 
taken.1 

Gracchus,  after  having  possessed  himself  of  the  enemy's 
camp  at  a  loss  of  less  than  a  hundred  soldiers,  quickly  with- 
drew to  Cumae,  as  he  feared  danger  from  Hannibal,  who  was 
encamped  at  Tifata  2  overlooking  Capua.  Nor  was  he  misled 
by  his  forecast  of  the  future.  As  soon  as  the  news  of  the  dis- 
aster reached  Capua,  Hannibal,  who  calculated  on  finding  at 

1  This  seems  to  be  one  of  those  cases  where  the  "  more  than  Punic 
perfidy"  of  the  Romans  depends  for  its  justification  on  a  hostile  plot, 
which  is  scarcely  established.  St.  Bartholomew's  Day  is  one  of  the  many 
historical  instances  of  similar  pleas. — D.  O. 

9  The  highest  of  the  sweep  of  mountains  and  hills  that  make  an  am- 
phitheatre of  the  plain  in  which  Capua  stands. — D.  O. 


396  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  215 

Hamae  an  army  chiefly  composed  of  young  soldiers  and  slaves, 
flushed  and  insolent  with  success,  plundering  the  vanquished 
and  carrying  off  spoil,  hurried  his  men  at  quick  march  past 
Capua,  and  gave  orders  that  the  Campanian  fugitives  whom 
he  met  were,  to  be  conducted  under  escort  to  Capua  and  the 
wounded  conveyed  in  wagons.  But  he  found  at  Hamae,  the 
camp  evacuated  by  the  enemy,  nothing  but  traces  of  the  recent 
defeat  and  the  bodies  of  his  allies  all  around  him.  Some  ad- 
vised him  to  march  at  once  on  Cumae  and  attack  the  place. 
Though  this  was  what  Hannibal  very  eagerly  desired,  so  that 
having  failed  at  Naples  he  might  at  least  possess  himself  of 
one  maritime  town  in  Cumae,  still,  as  his  troops,  marching  out 
hurriedly,  had  taken  nothing  but  their  arms  with  them,  he 
retired  to  his  camp  on  Tifata.  The  following  day,  at  the  im- 
portunate entreaties  of  the  Campanians,  he  returned  with  all 
appliances  for  the  siege  of  Cumae.  He  completely  ravaged 
the  country  round  it,  and  then  established  his  camp  a  mile 
from  the  city.  Meanwhile  Gracchus  had  halted,  more  from 
shame  at  the  thought  of  deserting  in  such  a  crisis  allies  who 
were  appealing  to  his  good  faith  and  that  of  the  Roman  people 
than  because  he  had  much  confidence  in  his  troops,  while 
the  other  consul,  Fabius,  who  had  his  camp  at  Cales,  did  not 
dare  to  cross  the  river  Vulturnus  with  his  army.  At  first 
he  was  giving  his  attention  to  a  repetition  of  the  auspices, 
then  to  prodigies,  which  were  reported  in  quick  succession. 
When  he  sought  to  expiate  them,  the  augurs  persisted  in  re- 
plying that  such  omens  were  not  easily  averted. 

While  Fabius  was  detained  by  these  causes,  Gracchus  was 
being  blockaded.  He  was  now  in  fact  threatened  by  siege- 
works.  A  wooden  tower  had  been  advanced  against  the  town, 
and  to  confront  it  the  Roman  consul  had  raised  another  tower 
somewhat  loftier  on  the  very  walls.  He  used  indeed  the  walls 
which  of  themselves  were  sufficiently  lofty,  as  a  foundation, 
into  which  he  drove  strong  piles.  From  this  tower  the  garri- 
son at  first  defended  the  city  and  its  fortifications  with  stones, 
stakes,  and  other  missiles.  At  last,  when  they  saw  that  the 
tower  by  being  gradually  advanced  was  close  to  the  walls, 
they  flung  on  it  with  burning  brands  a  huge  mass  of  fire. 
Terror-stricken  at  the  flames,  the  host  of  armed  soldiers  threw 
themselves  headlong  from  the  tower,  and  at  that  moment 
there  was  a  simultaneous  sally  from  two  gates  of  the  town, 
which  routed  the  enemy's  outposts  and  drove  them  into  the 
camp.  Thus  on  that  day  the  Carthaginian  was  more  in  the 
plight  of  the  besieged  than  of  the  besieger.  As  many  as 
thirteen  hundred  Carthaginians  were  slain,  and  fifty-nine  taken 


B.C.  2i5]  ROMAN   SUCCESSES  397 

prisoners.  They  were  caught  unawares,  as  they  were  keep- 
ing guard  carelessly  and  heedlessly  near  the  walls  and  at  their 
posts,  and  dreading  nothing  so  little  as  a  sally.  Before  the 
enemy  could  recover  from  their  sudden  panic,  Gracchus  gave 
the  signal  of  retreat,  and  withdrew  his  men  within  the  walls. 

Next  day  Hannibal,  who  thought  that  the  consul  elated  by 
his  success  would  fight  a  regular  battle,  drew  up  his  troops 
between  his  camp  and  the  city.  Seeing,  however,  that  not  a 
man  stirred  from  his  usual  post  of  defence,  and  that  there 
was  no  thought  of  trusting  presumptuous  hopes,  he  returned 
to  Tifata,  baffled  in  his  purpose.  At  the  very  same  time  at 
which  the  siege  of  Cumae  was  raised,  Tiberius  Sempronius, 
surnamed  Longus,  fought  a  successful  engagement  at  Gru- 
mentum1  in  Lucaniawith  the  Carthaginian  general  Hanno.  He 
slew  more  than  two  thousand  of  the  enemy,  with  a  loss  of  two 
hundred  and  eighty  soldiers,  and  captured  upward  of  forty-one 
standards.  Driven  out  of  Lucanian  territory,  Hanno  retired 
into  Bruttium.  Those  towns,  too,  of  the  Hirpini  which  had 
revolted  from  Rome  were  forcibly  recovered  by  the  praetor, 
Marcus  Valerius.  Vercellius  and  Sicilius,  the  authors  of  the 
revolt,  were  beheaded.  More  than  a  thousand  prisoners  were 
sold  by  auction.  The  remainder  of  the  booty  was  given  up  to 
the  soldiers,  and  the  army  marched  back  to  Luceria. 

During  these  operations  in  Lucania  and  in  the  country  of 
the  Hirpini,  the  five  ships  which  were  conveying  the  captured 
Macedonian  and  Carthaginian  envoys  to  Rome,  had  sailed 
round  almost  the  whole  coast  of  Italy  from  the  Upper  to  the 
Lower  Sea.  When  they  were  passing  Cuma2,  and  it  was  not 
distinctly  known  whether  they  belonged  to  the  enemy  or  to 
allies,  Gracchus  sent  vessels  from  his  fleet  to  meet  them.  As 
soon  as  it  had  been  ascertained  by  mutual  inquiry  that  the 
consul  was  at  Cumae,  the  ships  put  into  that  place,  the  prison- 
ers were  taken  to  the  consul,  and  their  papers  were  placed  in 
his  hands.  Having  read  the  letters  from  Philip  and  from 
Hannibal,  he  sent  them  all  under  seal  to  the  senate  by  land, 
directing  the  envoys  to  be  conveyed  by  ship.  Almost  on  the 
same  day  both  letters  and  envoys  reached  Rome,  and,  when 
upon  inquiry,  what  they  said  was  found  to  agree  with  the 
documents,  the  first  feeling  of  the  senate  was  serious  alarm 
when  they  saw  how  formidable  a  war  threatened  them  from 
Macedonia,  barely  equal  as  they  were  to  the  burden  of  the  war 
with  Carthage.  Yet  so  far  were  they  from  succumbing,  that 
they  instantly  debated  how  they  might  keep  off  the  enemy 
from  Italy  by  attacking  him  themselves.  They  gave  orders 

1  Now  Saponara. — D.  O. 


398  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  215 

to  put  the  prisoners  in  chains,  and  their  attendants  they  sold 
by  auction,  and  then  decided  to  get  ready  twenty  vessels  to 
be  added  to  the  twenty-five  already  under  the  command  of 
Publius  Valerius  Flaccus.  The  vessels  were  equipped  and 
launched,  the  five  which  had  conveyed  the  captive  envoys 
added  to  them,  and  thus  a  fleet  of  thirty  ships  sailed  from  Ostia 
for  Tarentum.  Instructions  were  given  to  Publius  Valerius 
to  put  on  shipboard  Varro's  troops,  which  were  commanded 
by  Lucius  Apustius,  the  governor  of  Tarentum,  and,  besides 
guarding  with  a  fleet  of  fifty  vessels  the  shores  of  Italy,  to 
ascertain  something  about  the  war  with  Macedon.  Should 
Philip's  designs  correspond  with  the  letters  and  the  disclos- 
ures of  the  envoys,  Marcus  Valerius,  the  prsetor,  was  to  be 
informed  by  a  despatch.  He  was  then,  after  putting  his  army 
under  the  command  of  his  lieutenant,  Lucius  Apustius,  to  go 
to  the  fleet  at  Tarentum,  cross  on  the  very  first  opportunity 
into  Macedonia,  and  use  every  effort  to  confine  Philip  within 
his  kingdom.  For  the  maintenance  of  the  fleet,  and  for  the 
war  with  Macedon,  the  same  money  was  voted  which  had  been 
sent  to  Appius  Claudius  in  Sicily  to  be  paid  to  King  Hiero. 
The  money  was  conveyed  to  Tarentum  through  the  hands  of 
Lucius  Apustius.  Hiero  at  the  same  time  sent  two  hundred 
thousand  pecks  of  wheat  and  a  hundred  thousand  of  barley. 

While  the  Romans  were  thus  planning  and  acting,  a  cap- 
tured vessel,  one  of  those  which  had  been  sent  to  Rome,  es- 
caped back  to  Philip.  It  thus  became  known  to  him  that  his 
envoys  and  their  despatches  had  been  captured.  As  he  knew 
nothing  of  the  compact  which  they  had  arranged  with  Hanni- 
bal or  of  the  message  which  Hannibal's  envoys  would  have 
brought  him,  he  sent  a  second  embassy  with  the  same  instruc- 
tions. The  envoys  he  sent  to  Hannibal  were  Heracleitus,  sur- 
named  Scotinus,1  Crito  of  Boeotia,  and  Sositheus  Magnes. 
They  were  successful  in  taking  and  bringing  back  their  mes- 
sage, but  summer  passed  away  before  the  king  could  move  OP 
attempt  anything.  Such  was  the  effect  of  the  capture  of  a 
single  vessel  with  the  envoys  in  delaying  the  war  now  hanging 
over  the  Romans. 

In  the  neighbourhood  of  Capua  where  Fabius  had  crossed 
the  Vulturnus,  having  at  last  completed  his  expiation  of  the 
portents,  both  the  consuls  were  carrying  on. operations.  Com- 
bulteria,  Trebula,2  and  Austicula,  towns  which  had  revolted  to 
the  Carthaginian,  were  stormed  by  Fabius,  and  Hannibal's 
garrisons  in  them  with  a  great  number  of  Campanians  were 

1  Not  the  philosopher. — D.  O. 
*  Now  Treglia.— D.  O. 


B.  C.  215]     HASDRUBAL   DEFEATED   IN   SARDINIA  399 

made  prisoners.  At  Nola,  just  as  in  the  previous  year,  the 
senate  was  on  the  side  of  the  Romans,  the  commons  on  that 
of  Hannibal,  and  secret  plots  were  being  hatched  to  destroy 
the  principal  citizens  and  to  betray  the  town.  To  hinder  the 
success  of  these  attempts,  Fabius  marched  his  army  to  a  posi- 
tion between  Capua  and  Hannibal's  camp  on  Tifata,  and  estab- 
lished himself  on  Vesuvius  in  the  camp  of  Claudius.  Thence 
he  despatched  the  pro-consul,  Marcus  Marcellus,  with  the 
force  under  his  command,  to  garrison  Nola. 

In  Sardinia,  too,  active  operations,  which  had  been 
dropped  when  Quintus  Mucius,  the  praetor,  was  attacked  by 
serious  illness,  were  commenced  by  Titus  Manlius.  Manlius 
hauled  his  war-ships  ashore  at  Carales,1  and  after  arming  the 
crews  with  the  view  of  carrying  on  hostilities  by  land,  and  re- 
ceiving command  of  the  praetor's  troops,  made  up  his  army  to 
twenty  thousand  infantry  and  two  hundred  cavalry.  With 
this  force  he  invaded  the  enemy's  territory,  and  encamped  at 
no  great  distance  from  the  camp  of  Hampsicora.  It  happened 
that  Hampsicora  had  then  marched  into  the  country  of  the 
Pelliti-Sardi  to  arm  their  youth  and  so  increase  his  army.  His 
son,  Hostus  by  name,  commanded  at  the  camp.  With  a 
young  man's  confidence  he  rashly  risked  an  engagement,  in 
which  he  was  beaten  and  put  to  the  rout,  upward  of  three 
thousand  of  the  Sardi  being  slain  in  the  battle  and  as  many  as 
eight  hundred  made  prisoners.  The  rest  of  the  army,  after 
wandering  in  their  flight  over  fields  and  forests,  took  refuge  at 
a  town  named  Cornus,2  the  capital  of  the  district,  whither,  so 
rumour  said,  their  leader  had  escaped.  This  battle  would 
have  ended  the  war  in  Sardinia,  had  not  the  Carthaginian  fleet, 
which  had  been  driven  by  a  storm  on  the  Balearic  Isles,  arrived 
under  the  command  of  Hasdrubal  at  the  critical  moment  to 
awaken  hopes  of  renewing  the  struggle. 

Manlius  on  hearing  the  report  of  the  arrival  of  the  Cartha- 
ginian fleet,  retired  to  Carales,  and  thus  an  opportunity  was 
given  to  Hampsicora  of  joining  the  Carthaginians.  Hasdru- 
bal, having  landed  his  troops,  and  sent  the  fleet  back  to  Car- 
thage, started  with  Hampsicora  for  his  guide  to  plunder  the 
territories  of  Rome's  allies,  and  he  would  have  reached  Carales 
had  not  Manlius  met  him  with  his  army  and  checked  his  wide- 
ly-extended ravages.  At  first  camp  confronted  camp  with 
but  a  small  space  between  them,  and  soon  there  were  sorties 
and  some  trifling  skirmishes  with  varying  results.  At  last 
they  went  into  action  and  fought  a  regular  engagement  at 

1  The  modern  Cagliari,  the  capital  of  Sardinia. — D.  O. 
1  On  the  west  coast. — D.  O, 


400  LIVY'S   ROMAN    HISTORY  [8.0.215 

close  quarters  for  four  hours.  Long  did  the  Carthaginians 
maintain  a  doubtful  conflict,  while  the  Sardi  were,  as  usual, 
easily  beaten ;  but  ultimately  they  themselves,  too,  seeing  the 
general  slaughter  and  flight  of  the  Sardi  around  them,  were 
routed.  But  the  moment  they  turned  their  backs,  the  Roman 
wing,  which  had  defeated  the  Sardi,  wheeled  round  and 
hemmed  them  in.  It  then  became  a  massacre  more  than  a 
fight.  Twelve  thousand  of  the  enemy  were  slain,  of  Sardi  and 
of  Carthaginians ;  about  three  thousand  seven  hundred  were 
taken  prisoners,  with  twenty-seven  military  standards. 

The  battle  was  rendered  especially  famous  and  memorable 
by  the  capture  of  Hasdrubal,  the  general,  and  of  Hanno  and 
Mago,  Carthaginian  nobles.  Mago  was  of  the  Barcine  fam- 
ily and  was  nearly  related  to  Hannibal ;  Hanno  had  headed  the 
rebellion  of  the  Sardi,  and  was  unquestionably  the  author  of 
the  war.  The  fall,  too,  of  the  leaders  of  the  Sardi  contributed 
equally  to  make  this  a  glorious  victory.  Hampsicora's  son 
Hostus  was  slain  on  the  field,  and  Hampsicora,  who  fled  with  a 
few  troopers,  on  hearing  of  his  son's  death  in  addition  to  the 
ruin  of  his  fortunes  slew  himself  in  the  night,  when  no  one 
could  interfere  to  hinder  his  purpose.  The  rest  found  refuge 
as  before  in  the  town  of  Cornus.  Manlius  attacked  it  with  his 
victorious  army  and  retook  it  in  a  few  days.  Then  other 
states  which  had  revolted  to  Hampsicora  and  the  Carthagin- 
ians, gave  hostages  and  surrendered.  Having  required  them 
to  furnish  tribute  and  corn  according  to  their  respective  abili- 
ties or  past  misconduct,  Manlius  marched  his  army  back  to 
Carales.  There  he  launched  his  ships  of  war,  and  having  put 
on  board  the  troops  he  had  brought  with  him,  he  sailed  to 
Rome  and  announced  to  the  senate  the  thorough  conquest  of 
Sardinia.  The  tribute  he  handed  over  to  the  quaestors,  the 
corn  to  the  aediles,  and  the  prisoners  to  the  praetor  Fulvius. 

About  the  same  time  the  praetor  Titus  Otacilius  crossed 
from  Lilybaeum  x  to  Africa  with  a  fleet  of  fifty  ships.  After 
ravaging  the  Carthaginian  territory  he  set  sail  for  Sardinia, 
whither  Hasdrubal,  as  report  said,  had  crossed  from  the  Bale- 
aric Isles,  and  fell  in  with  his  fleet  as  it  was  on  its  return  to 
Africa.  A  trifling  engagement  was  fought  in  the  open  sea, 
and  Otacilius  captured  seven  ships  with  their  crews.  As  for 
the  rest,  panic  dispersed  them  as  effectually  as  a  storm  would 
have  done.  It  happened,  too,  that  about  the  same  time  Bo- 
milcar  arrived  at  Locri  with  some  troops  sent  as  re-enforce- 
ments from  Carthage,  as  well  as  some  elephants  and  supplies. 
Appius  Claudius,  with  a  view  of  falling  on  him  unawares, 
1  The  western  point  of  Sicily. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  215]      MARCELLUS   DEVASTATES   SAMNIUM  401 

rapidly  marched  his  army  to  Messana  under  the  pretext  of 
making  a  circuit  of  the  province,  and  crossed  to  Locri  with  a 
favourable  tide.  By  this  time  Bomilcar  had  left  to  join  Hanno 
in  Bruttium,  and  the  Locrians  closed  their  gates  against  the 
Romans.  Appius,  after  making  a  great  effort  without  any 
result,  returned  to  Messana.  That  same  summer,  Marcellus, 
who  was  holding  Nola  with  a  garrison,  made  thence  frequent 
incursions  into  the  territories  of  the  Hirpini  and  of  the  Sam- 
nites  in  Caudium.  So  utterly  did  he  waste  the  whole  country 
with  fire  and  sword  as  to  revive  throughout  Samnium  the 
memory  of  ancient  disasters. 

Envoys  were  therefore  instantly  despatched  by  the  two 
peoples  simultaneously  to  Hannibal.  These  addressed  the 
Carthaginian  as  follows :  "  In  early  days,  Hannibal,  we  stood 
alone  by  our  own  choice  as  enemies  of  Rome,  as  long  as  our 
arms  and  our  strength  could  defend  us.  When  we  lost  con- 
fidence in  them,  we  allied  ourselves  with  King  Pyrrhus.  He 
abandoned  us,  and  then  we  submitted  to  an  inevitable  peace, 
in  which  we  lived  for  nearly  fifty  years,  till  the  time  when  you 
entered  Italy.  You  so  endeared  yourself  to  us,  not  so  much 
by  your  valour  and  success,  as  by  your  marked  courtesy  and 
kindness  toward  our  citizens  whom  you  captured  and  restored 
to  us,  that,  while  you,  our  friend,  were  safe  and  prosperous, 
we  feared,  if  I  may  say  it  without  offence,  not  even  the  wrath 
of  Heaven,  far  less  the  Roman  people.  But  now,  while  you  are 
not  only  safe  and  victorious,  but  actually  present  among  us, 
so  that  you  might  almost  hear  the  wailings  of  our  wives  and 
children,  and  behold  our  burning  houses,  we  have  suffered,  we 
protest,  such  repeated  devastations  this  summer,  that  it  would 
seem  that  Marcellus  and  not  Hannibal  was  the  victor  at  Can- 
nae, while  the  Romans  boast  that  you  have  strength  only  for  a 
single  blow  and  are  then  paralyzed,  as  if  you  had  lost  your 
sting.  For  almost  a  hundred  years  we  waged  war  with  Rome, 
without  the  aid  of  any  foreign  general  or  army,  unless  I  except 
those  two  years  with  Pyrrhus,  though  he  did  not  so  much  de- 
fend us  with  his  own  strength  as  re-enforce  that  strength  out  of 
our  own  soldiery.  I  will  not  boast  of  our  successes,  how  we 
passed  under  the  yoke  two  consuls  and  two  consular  armies, 
or  of  other  fortunate  and  glorious  incidents  in  our  history. 
The  sufferings  and  reverses  of  those  days  we  can  speak  of 
with  less  indignation  than  those  which  are  now  befalling  us. 
Great  dictators  with  masters  of  the  horse,  two  consuls,  each 
with  a  consular  army,  would  then  invade  our  territories ;  first 
duly  reconnoitring,  and  posting  their  reserves,  they  marched 
in  regular  array  to  ravage  the  country.  But  now  we  are  the 
26 


402  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  215 

prey  of  one  pro-praetor  and  of  a  single  garrison,  small  even  for 
the  defence  of  Nola.  It  is  not  in  military  detachments  but  in 
mere  brigand  fashion  that  they  scour  our  lands,  more  heed- 
lessly than  if  they  were  roving  over  Roman  ground.  And  the 
cause  is  this.  You  do  not  defend  us  yourself,  and  all  our  youth 
who,  were  they  at  home,  would  protect  us,  are  serving  under 
your  standards.  I  should  be  mistaken  in  you  and  your  army 
did  I  not  suppose  that  that  which  I  know  has  routed  and  over- 
thrown so  many  Roman  hosts,  must  find  it  easy  to  crush  these 
roving  plunderers  of  our  country,  who  have  straggled  away 
from  their  standards  wherever  any  prospect,  however  idle,  of 
booty  lures  this  or  that  man.  They  surely  will  be  the  prey  of 
a  handful  of  Numidians,  and  you  will  have  sent  defence  to  us 
and  have  taken  it  from  Nola,  if  only  you  count  those  whom 
you  thought  worthy  to  have  as  allies,  not  unworthy  of  the 
protection  which  you  promised  them  as  such." 

Hannibal  replied  that  the  Hirpini  and  Samnites  did  every- 
thing at  once.  They  told  their  calamities,  asked  help,  and 
complained  of  being  unprotected  and  deserted.  They  ought 
first  to  have  told  the  facts,  then  to  have  asked  aid ;  and  last  of 
all  if  they  failed  to  get  it,  to  have  complained  that  they  had  im- 
plored assistance  in  vain.  He  would  not  march  his  army  into 
the  territory  of  the  Hirpini  and  Samnites,  lest  he  too  might  be 
a  burden  on  them,  but  into  the  country  of  the  allies  of  Rome 
that  lay  close  at  hand.  By  laying  this  waste  he  would  both 
enrich  his  army  and  also  rid  them  of  the  presence  of  the  enemy 
by  terror.  As  for  the  war  with  Rome,  if  Trasumennus  was 
a  more  famous  battle  than  Trebia,  and  Cannae  than  Trasumen- 
nus, he  would  soon  eclipse  the  memory  even  of  Cannae  by  a 
greater  and  more  glorious  victory. 

With  this  answer  and  some  splendid  presents  Hannibal  dis- 
missed the  envoys.  Leaving  a  small  force  at  Tifata,  he  him- 
self began  to  advance  with  the  rest  of  his  army  on  Nola. 
Thither  also  came  Hanno  from  Bruttium  with  the  re-enforce- 
ments and  elephants  from  Carthage.  Having  encamped  at 
no  great  distance,  Hannibal  found  on  inquiry  that  matters 
were  very  different  from  what  he  had  been  told  by  the  envoys 
of  his  allies.  None  in  fact  of  the  operations  of  Marcellus  were 
such  that  it  could  be  said  that  he  had  rashly  put  himself  in 
the  power  of  fortune  or  of  the  enemy.  It  had  been  after  care- 
ful reconnoitring,  in  strong  detachments,  and  with  his  retreat 
secured,  that  he  had  gone  out  to  plunder.  Every  care  and 
precaution  had  been  taken,  just  as  if  he  were  fighting  against 
Hannibal  in  person.  When  he  discovered  that  the  enemy  was 
approaching,  he  kept  his  troops  within  the  walls,  and  ordered 


B.  C.  215]  HANNIBAL  INVESTS  NOLA  403 

the  senators  of  Nola  to  walk  up  and  down  the  ramparts  and 
observe  all  the  enemy's  proceedings  in  the  neighbourhood. 
Hanno,  who  had  gone  close  to  the  walls,  invited  two  of  these, 
Herennius  Bassus  and  Herius  Pettius,  to  a  conference,  and 
when  with  the  permission  of  Marcellus  they  had  left  the  city, 
he  spoke  to  them  through  an  interpreter.  He  extolled  the 
valour  and  success  of  Hannibal,  while  he  depreciated  the  wan- 
ing greatness  and  strength  of  the  Roman  people.  Were  these, 
he  said,  what  they  had  once  been,  still  those  who  knew  by  ex- 
perience how  oppressive  Rome's  empire  was  to  her  allies,  and 
what  indulgence  Hannibal  had  shown  even  toward  all  his  pris- 
oners of  Italian  race,  must  prefer  the  Carthaginian  alliance 
and  friendship  to  the  Roman.  If  both  consuls  were  with  their 
armies  at  Nola,  they  would  after  all  be  no  more  a  match  for 
Hannibal  than  they  had  been  at  Cannae.  Much  less  could  a 
single  praetor  with  a  few  new  soldiers  defend  Nola.  Whether 
Hannibal  should  possess  himself  of  the  place  by  capture  or  by 
surrender  concerned  them  more  than  Hannibal.  For,  indeed, 
he  would  possess  himself  of  it,  as  he  had  of  Capua  and  Nuceria. 
But  what  a  difference  there  was  between  the  lot  of  Capua  and 
that  of  Nuceria,  the  citizens  of  Nola  themselves  knew,  situated 
as  they  were,  almost  half-way  between  those  towns.  He  had  no 
wish  to  forecast  what  would  befall  the  city  if  taken;  he  pre- 
ferred to  pledge  his  word  that,  if  they  surrendered  Marcellus 
and  his  garrison  and  Nola,  no  one  but  themselves  would  de- 
cide the  terms  on  which  they  would  enter  into  alliance  and 
friendship  with  Hannibal. 

To  this  Herennius  Bassus  replied :  "  There  has  been  a 
friendship  of  many  years  between  the  people  of  Rome  and 
of  Nola,  of  which  hitherto  neither  has  repented.  Had  we 
thought  that  we  should  change  our  alliance  when  fortune 
changed,  it  is  now  too  late  so  to  change  it.  Had  we  meant 
surrender,  we  should  not  have  summoned  Roman  aid.  As  it 
is,  there  is  a  perfect  bond  of  union  between  us  and  those  who 
have  come  to  protect  us,  which  will  continue  to  the  end." 

This  conference  took  from  Hannibal  all  hopes  of  recover- 
ing Nola  by  surrender.  He  therefore  completely  invested  the 
town  with  a  view  of  a  simultaneous  attack  on  its  walls  from 
every  part.  As  soon  as  Marcellus  saw  that  he  was  close  to 
the  ramparts  he  drew  up  his  troops  within  one  of  the  gates  and 
burst  out  with  great  fury.  Not  a  few  were  overthrown  and 
slain  by  this  first  onset ;  soon  there  was  a  general  rush  to  join 
the  combatants,  whose  strength  being  equalized,  a  terrible 
fight  began,  which  would  have  been  memorable  as  few  battles 
have  been,  had  not  a  violent  downpour  of  rain  with  tremen- 


404  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  21$ 

dous  storms  put  an  end  to  the  conflict.  That  day,  after  a  par- 
tial engagement,  they  retired  in  fierce  excitement,  the  Romans 
to  the  town,  the  Carthaginians  to  their  camp.  Of  the  latter, 
however,  there  fell  in  the  panic  of  the  first  attack  not  more 
than  thirty,  of  the  Romans,  not  a  man.  The  rain  continued 
without  ceasing  throughout  the  whole  night  till  the  third  hour 
of  the  following  day.  And  so  both  sides,  though  eager  for 
battle,  kept  themselves  that  day  within  their  intrenchments. 
Three  days  afterward  Hannibal  sent  part  of  his  army  on  a 
plundering  expedition  into  the  country  round  Nola.  Mar- 
cellus,  perceiving  this,  at  once  led  his  troops  to  battle,  and 
Hannibal  did  not  refuse  the  challenge.  There  was  about  a 
mile  between  the  city  and  the  camp,  and  within  that  space  (it 
is  all  level  ground  round  Nola)  the  armies  met.  A  shout  rose 
from  each,  and  summoned  back  to  the  battle  now  begun,  the 
nearest  soldiers  from  the  cohorts  which  had  gone  out  into  the 
fields  for  plunder.  The  citizens  of  Nola  swelled  the  Roman 
ranks,  and  were  warmly  praised  by  Marcellus,  who  ordered 
them  to  stand  with  the  reserves  and  carry  the  wounded  off  the 
field,  but  keep  out  of  action,  unless  he  gave  them  the  signal  to 
engage. 

The  battle  was  undecided,  the  generals  cheering  on  their 
men,  fighting  to  the  utmost  of  their  strength.  Marcellus  bade 
them  press  hard  an  enemy  who  had  been  beaten  three  days  pre- 
viously, had  been  driven  in  flight  a  few  days  ago  from  Cumse, 
and  under  his  own  leadership,  though  by  other  troops,  had 
been  repulsed  last  year  from  Nola.  Nor  were  they  all,  he  said, 
in  the  field;  some  were  roving  for  plunder  throughout  the 
country.  Even  those  who  were  engaged,  were  enervated  by 
the  luxury  of  Campania,  by  wine  and  women,  and  had  worn 
themselves  out  by  every  debauchery  during  a  whole  winter. 
Their  old  strength  and  vigour  were  gone ;  the  endurance  of 
the  frames  and  hearts  which  had  surmounted  the  heights  of 
the  Pyrenees  and  of  the  Alps,  had  melted  away.  The  present 
combatants  were  but  the  remnant  of  those  brave  men,  and 
could  scarce  bear  the  burden  of  their  arms  or  limbs.  Capua 
had  been  Hannibal's  Cannae;  there  had  perished  warlike 
valour,  military  discipline,  all  glory  of  the  past,  all  hope  for 
the  future. 

While  Marcellus  was  rousing  the  courage  of  his  soldiers 
by  these  taunts  against  the  enemy,  Hannibal  was  upbraiding 
his  men  with  much  harsher  reproaches.  "  I  recognise,"  he 
said,  "  the  same  arms  and  standards  which  I  saw  and  with 
which  I  fought  at  Trebia,  Trasumennus,  and  last  of  all  at  Can- 
nae. But  I  protest  that  I  marched  into  winter  quarters  at 


B.C.  215]  HANNIBAL   DEFEATED   AT   NOLA  405 

Capua  with  one  army  and  marched  out  of  it  with  another. 
Are  you,  whose  attack  two  consular  armies  never  once  sus- 
tained, barely  a  match  for  a  Roman  lieutenant  and  the  onset  of 
a  single  legion  and  one  division  of  allies  ?  Is  Marcellus  with 
his  raw  recruits  and  his  reserves  of  Nola  townsfolk  now  again 
challenging  us  with  impunity  ?  Where  is  that  soldier  of  mine 
who  dragged  the  consul  Flaminius  from  his  horse  and  struck 
off  his  head  ?  Where  is  the  man  who  cut  down  Lucius  Paulius 
at  Cannae  ?  Are  their  swords  now  blunt ;  are  their  right  hands 
paralyzed?  Or  what  other  miracle  explains  it?  Once  few  in 
number,  you  used  to  vanquish  a  superior  host ;  now  yourselves 
superior  you  barely  resist  a  few.  Brave  in  tongue,  you  boast- 
ed that  you  would  storm  Rome,  were  you  to  be  led  thither. 
See  before  you  a  less  formidable  enterprise.  Here  I  wish  to 
test  your  strength  and  valour.  Storm  Nola,  a  city  in  a  plain, 
without  defence  of  river  or  sea.  When  you  have  laden  your- 
selves with  the  booty  and  the  spoils  of  so  rich  a  town,  I  will 
either  lead  you  or  follow  you  whither  you  please." 

Neither  words  of  encouragement  nor  reproach  availed  to 
put  resolution  into  their  hearts.  At  every  point  they  were 
driven  back,  while  the  courage  of  the  Romans  rose,  cheered 
on,  as  it  were,  not  only  by  their  general,  but  by  the  people  of 
Nola,  who  with  shouts,  which  testified  to  their  good-will, 
roused  yet  more  the  enthusiasm  of  battle.  The  Carthaginians 
turned  and  were  driven  into  their  camp,  but  though  the  Ro- 
man soldiers  were  eager  to  storm  it,  Marcellus  led  them  back 
to  Nola  amid  great  joy,  and  congratulations  even  from  the 
populace,  which  had  previously  inclined  toward  Carthage. 
More  than  five  thousand  of  the  enemy  were  slain  that  day,  six 
hundred  taken  alive,  with  nineteen  military  standards  and  two 
elephants.  Of  the  Romans  less  than  a  thousand  fell.  The 
next  day  was  spent  in  an  armistice  by  tacit  consent,  both  sides 
burying  their  slain  in  the  battle.  The  spoils  taken  from  the 
enemy  Marcellus  burned  as  a  vow  to  Vulcan.1 

Two  days  afterward,  prompted,  I  imagine,  by  some  resent- 
ment, or  by  the  hope  of  a  more  liberally  rewarded  warfare,  two 
hundred  and  seventy-two  troopers,  Numidians  and  Spaniards 
intermixed,  deserted  to  Marcellus.  Of  their  brave  and  faithful 
services  the  Romans  often  availed  themselves  during  this  war. 
When  it  was  over,  the  Spaniards  had  lands  given  them  in 
Spain,  the  Numidians  in  Africa,  in  recompense  of  their  valour. 

1  I  am  inclined  to  doubt  Hannibal's  presence  at  this  battle,  and  to 
believe  the  victory  to  have  been  won  over  Hanno  and  his  forces  alone. 
Otherwise  the  Carthaginian  cause  in  Italy  would  have  been  lost  then  and 
there.— D.  O. 


406  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  215 

Hannibal  sent  back  Hanno  from  Nola  to  Bruttium  with 
the  forces  which  he  had  brought  with  him,  and  went  himself 
into  winter  quarters  in  Apulia,  encamping  near  Arpi.  Quin- 
tus  Fabius,  on  hearing  that  he  had  marched  into  Apulia,  col- 
lected grain  from  Nola  and  Naples  and  stored  it  in  the  camp 
on  Suessula.  Having  then  strengthened  his  lines  and  left 
a  force  sufficient  to  defend  his  position  throughout  the  winter, 
he  moved  his  camp  nearer  Capua,  and  wasted  the  territory  of 
the  Campanians  with  fire  and  sword.  At  last  the  Campanians, 
though  they  had  absolutely  no  confidence  in  their  strength, 
were  compelled  to  sally  out  from  the  city  gates  and  establish 
a  camp  upon  ground  in  front  of  their  town.  They  had  in  all 
six  thousand  soldiers,  the  infantry  utterly  inefficient,  but  the 
horse  of  good  quality.  Accordingly,  they  kept  harassing  the 
enemy  by  cavalry  skirmishes.  Among  their  many  distin- 
guished troopers  was  one,  Cerrinus  Vibellius,  surnamed  Tau- 
rea.  He  too  was  a  citizen  of  Capua,  and  he  was  far  the  bravest 
horse-soldier  in  all  Campania.  Indeed,  when  he  served  with 
the  Romans,  there  was  but  one  Roman,  Claudius  Asellus,  who 
rivalled  him  in  renown  as  a  trooper.  Taurea  rode  up  to  the 
enemy's  squadrons,  and  took  a  long  survey  of  them.  When  at 
length  there  was  a  hush,  he  asked :  "  Where  is  Claudius  Asel- 
lus ?  He  used  to  dispute  with  me  in  words  the  palm  of  valour ; 
why  should  he  not  decide  the  matter  by  the  sword,  yielding 
up  the  prize  of  victory  if  he  is  beaten,  and  taking  it  if  he  is 
victorious  ?  " 

This  message  having  been  delivered  to  Asellus  in  the  camp, 
he  merely  waited  a  while  to  ask  the  consuls  whether  he  was  at 
liberty,  contrary  to  regulations,  to  fight  an  enemy  who  chal- 
lenged him.  On  obtaining  leave,  he  at  once  armed  himself, 
rode  out  in  front  of  the  sentries,  and  called  Taurea  by  name, 
bidding  him  to  an  encounter  wherever  he  pleased.  By  this 
time  the  Romans  had  poured  out  in  multitudes,  to  witness  the 
combat,  and  the  Campanians  too  were  crowding  the  intrench- 
ments  of  their  camps  and  even  their  city  walls,  to  look  on 
at  a  distance.  The  combatants,  who  had  already  given  noto- 
riety to  the  affair  by  their  speeches  of  defiance,  now  galloped 
their  horses  at  full  speed,  with  spears  in  rest.  There  was 
abundance  of  room,  and  they  amused  themselves  by  spinning 
out  a  bloodless  duel.  At  last  the  Campanian  said  to  the  Ro- 
man, "  This  will  be  a  contest  between  horses,  not  between 
horsemen,  unless  we  gallop  our  steeds  down  from  the  open 
into  this  hollow  lane,  where,  as  there  is  no  space  for  manoeu- 
vring, we  may  fight  at  close  quarters."  Almost  before  he  had 
said  the  word  Claudius  had  plunged  with  his  horse  into  the 


B.  C.  215]        TAUREA  AND  CLAUDIUS  ASELLUS  407 

lane.  Taurea,  bolder  in  speech  than  in  deed,  retorted  on  him, 
"  I  would  not  be  an  ass  in  a  ditch."  The  saying  subsequently 
passed  into  a  rustic  proverb.  Claudius  rode  along  the  lane 
to  a  great  distance,  and  meeting  no  enemy  returned  to  the 
open  ground.  He  then  went  back  victorious  to  his  camp  amid 
great  rejoicing  and  congratulation,  denouncing  the  cowardice 
of  his  foe.  To  this  fight  of  the  two  cavalry  soldiers  is  added 
in  some  chronicles  an  incident  certainly  extraordinary,  the 
truth  of  which  it  is  for  common  sense  to  decide.  Claudius,  it 
is  said,  who  followed  up  Taurea  in  his  flight  to  the  town, 
rushed  in  at  one  of  the  enemy's  gates  which  was  open,  and 
rode  out  unhurt  by  another  amid  the  helpless  wonderment  of 
the  foe. 

The  camp  was  now  quiet,  and  the  consul  even  shifted  his 
position  some  way  back,  that  the  Campanians  might  begin 
their  sowing.  Nor  did  he  do  any  injury  to  their  lands  until 
the  corn  was  high  enough  in  blade  to  yield  fodder.  Then  he 
carried  it  to  Claudius's  camp  on  Suessula,  and  there  estab- 
lished his  winter  quarters.  He  ordered  Marcellus,  the  pro- 
consul, to  retain  a  sufficient  force  at  Nola  for  the  defence  of 
the  place,  and  sent  away  the  rest  of  his  troops  to  Rome,  that 
they  might  not  be  a  burden  to  the  allies  and  an  expense  to 
the  state.  And  Gracchus,  having  marched  his  legions  from 
Cumae  to  Luceria  in  Apulia,  despatched  the  praetor,  Marcus 
Valerius,  with  the  army  he  had  at  Luceria,  to  Brundisium, 
with  instructions  to  guard  the  shores  of  the  Sallentine  terri- 
tory and  take  precautions  in  regard  to  Philip  and  the  war  with 
Macedon. 

At  the  end  of  the  summer  in  which  occurred  the  operations 
we  have  described,  came  despatches  from  Publius  and  Cneius 
Scipio,  telling  what  great  successes  they  had  achieved  in 
Spain,  but  also  stating  that  money  was  wanting  for  the  sol- 
diers' pay,  and  clothing  and  corn  for  the  troops,  and  that  the 
seamen  were  quite  destitute.  As  for  the  pay,  if  the  treasury 
were  empty,  they  would  themselves  devise  some  plan  of  get- 
ting it  from  the  Spaniards,  but  they  must  certainly  raise  all 
the  other  supplies  from  Rome,  that  being  the  only  possible 
way  of  retaining  either  the  troops  or  the  province.  When  the 
despatch  had  been  read,  every  one  admitted  the  truth  of  the 
statements  and  the  justice  of  the  request;  still,  the  thought 
presented  itself  of  the  vast  forces  which  they  would  have  to 
maintain  by  sea  and  land,  and  of  the  immense  new  fleet  soon 
to  be  equipped,  should  war  break  out  with  Macedon.  Sicily 
and  Sardinia,  which  had  paid  tribute  before  the  war,  could 
hardly  support  the  armies  which  guarded  these  provinces,  and 


4o8  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [»•  C.  2i$ 

the  expenses  were  furnished  out  of  a  citizens'  tax.  Not  only 
had  the  number  of  the  contributors  of  this  tax  been  materially 
diminished  by  those  murderous  defeats  of  our  armies  at  Trasu- 
mennus  and  Cannae,  but  even  the  few  survivors,  were  they  to 
be  burdened  with  an  increased  payment,  would  perish  by  an- 
other destruction.  Consequently,  unless  the  state  could  be  up- 
held by  credit,  it  would  not  be  upheld  by  its  resources.  The 
praetor  Fulvius,  it  was  said,  must  show  himself  in  an  assembly 
of  the  people  and  point  out  to  them  the  public  necessities,  and 
invite  those  who  had  improved  their  properties  by  taking  con- 
tracts, to  lend  money  for  a  time  to  the  state,  from  which  they 
had  enriched  themselves,  and  arrange  to  furnish  the  army  in 
Spain  with  all  that  it  needed,  on  the  condition  that,  as  soon  as 
there  was  money  in  the  treasury,  they  should  first  be  paid. 
Such  was  the  praetor's  proclamation  to  the  people,  and  he 
named  a  day  on  which  he  would  issue  contracts  for  the  supply 
of  clothing  and  corn  to  the  army  in  Spain,  and  of  whatever  else 
was  necessary  for  the  seamen. 

As  soon  as  the  day  arrived,  three  companies,  each  of  nine- 
teen members,  came  forward  to  take  the  contracts.  They 
made  two  demands.  One  was  exemption  from  military  serv- 
ice while  they  were  engaged  on  this  public  business ;  another 
was,  that,  for  whatever  they  put  on  shipboard  they  were  to  be 
insured  at  the  risks  of  the  state  against  storms  or  attacks  of 
the  enemy.  Both  demands  being  granted,  they  took  the  con- 
tracts, and  the  administration  of  the  state  was  carried  on  with 
private  money.  Such  principles  and  such  patriotism  per- 
vaded every  class,  almost  without  exception. 

As  all  the  contracts  were  taken  with  hearty  .good- will,  so 
they  were  performed  with  the  most  scrupulous  fidelity,  and 
the  armies  supplied  just  as  they  would  have  been  from  the 
overflowing  exchequer  of  former  days.  When  the  supplies 
arrived,  the  town  of  Iliturgi1  was  being  besieged  by  Hasdrubal, 
Mago,  and  Hamilcar,  son  of  Bomilcar,  because  it  had  revolted 
to  Rome.  Between  these  three  hostile  camps  the  Scipios 
made  their  way  into  the  city  of  our  allies  after  hard  fighting 
and  great  slaughter  of  the  opposing  army,  and  brought  with 
them  corn  of  which  there  was  an  extreme  scarcity.  Then 
after  encouraging  the  townsfolk  to  defend  their  walls  with  the 
same  spirit  with  which  they  had  seen  the  Roman  army  fight 
on  their  behalf,  they  marched  off  to  attack  the  principal  camp 
which  was  under  the  command  of  Hasdrubal.  The  two  other 
Carthaginian  generals  and  their  armies  hastened  to  the  spot, 

1  On  the  north  side  of  the  Bsetis,  between  Corduba  and  Castulo ;  after- 
ward  called  Forum  Julium. 


B.  C.  215]  SUCCESSES   IN   SPAIN  409 

seeing  it  was  to  be  the  scene  of  the  decisive  struggle.  There 
was  a  sally  out  of  the  camp,  followed  by  a  battle,  and  that  day 
sixty  thousand  of  the  enemy  and  sixteen  thousand  Romans 
were  engaged.  So  far,  however,  was  the  victory  from  being 
doubtful  that  the  Romans  slew  of  the  enemy  a  number  exceed- 
ing their  own,  taking  more  than  three  thousand  prisoners,  a 
little  under  a  thousand  horses  with  fifty-nine  standards,  and 
killing  five  elephants  in  the  battle.  On  that  day  they  captured 
three  camps.  The  siege  of  Iliturgi  having  thus  been  raised, 
the  Carthaginian  armies  were  marched  away  to  attack  Inti- 
bili,  their  losses  having  been  made  up  out  of  the  province,  one 
indeed  which  above  all  others  was  fond  of  fighting,  if  only 
plunder  or  pay  were  to  be  got,  and  in  which  young  men 
abounded.  Again  a  pitched  battle  was  fought,  the  same  for- 
tune attending  both  sides.  More  than  thirteen  thousand  of 
the  enemy  fell  and  more  than  two  thousand  were  taken  pris- 
oners, with  forty-two  standards  and  nine  elephants.  And  now 
indeed  all  the  Spanish  tribes  revolted  to  Rome,  and  far  greater 
results  were  achieved  that  year  in  Spain  than  in  Italy. 


BOOK   XXIV 

THE    SECOND    PUNIC    WAR    (CONTINUED) 

ON  his  return  from  Campania  to  Bruttium,  Hanno,  with 
Bruttian  help  and  guidance,  sought  to  seize  the  Greek 
towns.  These  remained  loyal  to  the  Roman  alliance 
all  the  more  willingly  because  they  saw  that  the  Brut- 
tians,  whom  they  both  hated  and  feared,  were  now  on  the  side 
of  the  Carthaginians.  Rhegium  was  first  attempted,  and  sev- 
eral days  were  spent  there  without  result.  Meanwhile  the 
people  of  Locri  were  hurriedly  carrying  from  their  fields  into 
the  city  their  corn,  wood,  and  other  necessaries,  anxious  at  the 
same  time  that  not  a  scrap  of  plunder  might  be  left  for  the  ene- 
my. Every  day  a  larger  crowd  poured  out  of  the  city  gates, 
till  at  last  there  were  left  in  the  town  only  those  who  were 
pressed  into  the  service  of  repairing  the  walls  and  gates  and 
carrying  weapons  to  the  ramparts.  Against  this  promiscuous 
multitude  of  all  ages  and  ranks,  as  it  straggled,  mostly  un- 
armed, over  the  fields,  the  Carthaginian,  Hamilcar,  sent  out 
his  cavalry,  with  orders  to  hurt  nobody,  but  simply  to  scatter 
them  in  flight  and  then  intercept  them  with  his  troopers,  so  as 
to  cut  them  off  from  the  city.  The  general  himself,  taking  up 
a  position  on  high  ground  from  which  he  could  see  the  neigh- 
bouring cavalry  as  well  as  the  town,  directed  a  Bruttian  cohort 
to  advance  up  to  the  walls,  summon  the  principal  Locrian  citi- 
zens to  a  conference,  and,  should  they  promise  friendship  to 
Hannibal,  they  were  to  encourage  them  to  surrender  the  city. 
As  for  the  Bruttians  in  this  conference,  the  Locrians  believed 
at  first  nothing  that  they  said,  but  when  the  Carthaginians 
showed  themselves  on  the  hills,  and  a  few  fugitives  brought  the 
news  that  all  the  rest  of  the  population  was  at  the  enemy's 
mercy,  they  were  overwhelmed  with  terror,  and  replied  that 
they  would  consult  the  popular  assembly.  Instantly  a  meet- 
ing was  summoned.  All  the  meaner  sort  were  for  a  new  gov- 
ernment and  a  new  alliance,  and  those  whose  kinsfolk  had  been 
intercepted  by  the  enemy  outside  the  walls  felt  themselves  as 
much  pledged  as  if  they  had  given  hostages.  A  few,  indeed, 

410 


B.C.  215]    CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  THE  GREEK  CITIES        411 

in  their  hearts  approved  a  steadfast  loyalty,  but  they  had  not 
the  courage  to  maintain  it.  And  so,  with  an  apparently  un- 
hesitating assent,  surrender  was  made  to  the  Carthaginians. 
Lucius  Atilius,  commander  of  the  garrison,  and  the  Roman 
soldiers  under  him,  were  secretly  taken  down  to  the  port  and 
put  on  shipboard  to  be  conveyed  to  Rhegium,  and  then  they 
admitted  Hamilcar  and  the  Carthaginians  into  the  town,  on 
condition  that  a  treaty  was  to  be  at  once  concluded  on  equi- 
table terms.  Faith  in  the  matter  was  all  but  broken  with  the 
party  making  the  surrender,  as  the  Carthaginians  complained 
that  they  had  treacherously  let  the  Romans  depart,  while  the 
Locrians  pleaded  that  they  had  themselves  escaped.  Some 
cavalry  went  in  pursuit,  in  case  the  tide  in  the  straits  might 
possibly  delay  the  vessels  or  carry  them  back  to  land.  Those 
indeed  whom  they  pursued,  they  failed  to  overtake,  but  they 
saw  some  other  ships  crossing  the  straits  from  Messana  to 
Rhegium.  These  carried  Roman  soldiers  whom  Claudius, 
the  praetor,  had  despatched  to  garrison  the  city.  So  the  Car- 
thaginians at  once  withdrew  from  Rhegium.  By  Hannibal's 
orders  peace  was  granted  to  the  Locrians.  They  were  to  live 
independent,  under  their  own  laws ;  their  city  was  to  be  open 
to  the  Carthaginians,  but  its  port  was  to  be  under  Locrian 
control ;  there  was  to  be  an  alliance,  with  the  understanding 
that  Carthaginians  and  Locrians  were  to  help  each  other  both 
in  peace  and  war. 

Thus  the  Carthaginians  returned  from  the  straits,  amid 
angry  complaints  from  the  Bruttians  at  their  having  left  Rhe- 
gium and  Locri  unmolested.  The  plunder  of  these  cities  the 
Bruttians  had  fully  counted  on  for  themselves.  So  on  their 
own  account  they  levied  and  equipped  fifteen  thousand  of  their 
own  youth  and  marched  to  attack  Croton,  also  a  Greek  city  on 
the  coast.  They  would  secure,  they  thought,  a  vast  accession 
to  their  resources  by  possessing  themselves  of  a  town  on  the 
sea,  with  a  harbour  and  strong  fortifications.  But,  as  they 
could  not  quite  venture  to  summon  the  Carthaginians  to  their 
aid,  they  were  harassed  by  the  apprehension  that  they  might 
seem  to  be  attempting  something  not  for  the  benefit  of  their 
allies.  Then,  too,  should  the  Carthaginian  again  be  the  ne- 
gotiator of  a  peace  rather  than  their  helper  in  war,  an  attack 
on  the  independence  of  Croton  would,  they  feared,  be  as  use- 
less as  had  previously  been  the  attack  on  Locri.  Hence  they 
thought  it  best  to  send  envoys  to  Hannibal  and  obtain  from 
him  a  guarantee  that  Croton,  when  reconquered,  should  be- 
long to  the  Bruttians. 

Hannibal  replied  that  the  question  was  one  for  those  on  the 


4I2  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [3.0.215 

spot,  and  he  referred  them  to  Hanno.  From  Hanno  no  defi- 
nite answer  was  received.  It  was  not  indeed  the  wish  of  the 
Carthaginians  to  see  a  famous  and  wealthy  city  plundered,  and 
they  hoped  that,  when  the  Bruttians  attacked  it,  as  it  was  evi- 
dent that  they  neither  approved  nor  aided  the  attack,  its  citi- 
zens would  revolt  to  them  the  sooner. 

Among  the  people  of  Croton  there  was  no  unity  of  policy 
or  of  feeling.  One  and  the  same  disease,  so  to  say,  had  fas- 
tened on  all  the  Italian  states,  strife  between  the  commons  and 
the  aristocracy,  the  senate  favouring  Rome,  while  the  com- 
mons were  for  throwing  themselves  into  the  hands  of  the  Car- 
thaginians. Of  this  dissension  in  the  city  the  Bruttians  were 
informed  by  a  deserter.  One,  Aristomachus,  he  said,  was  the 
popular  leader  and  advised  surrender.  In  so  vast  a  city,  with 
wide  and  scattered  fortifications,  the  sentries  and  guards  of 
the  senators  were  but  few,  and  wherever  men  of  the  popular 
party  were  on  duty,  there  was  free  entrance.  Under  the  ad- 
vice and  leading  of  the  deserter,  the  Bruttians  regularly  in- 
vested the  town.  At  the  first  assault,  they  were  admitted  by 
the  commons,  and  secured  every  part  except  the  citadel.  This 
was  held  by  the  aristocracy,  who  had  already  prepared  it  as  a 
place  of  refuge  against  such  a  contingency.  Thither  also 
Aristomachus  fled,  representing  that  he  had  advised  the  sur- 
render of  the  town  to  the  Carthaginians  and  not  to  the  Brut- 
tians. 

Before  Pyrrhus's  invasion  of  Italy  the  city  of  Croton  had 
a  wall  of  twelve  miles  circuit.  After  the  desolation  caused  by 
that  war  barely  half  the  space  was  inhabited.  The  river,  whose 
waters  had  flowed  through  the  middle  of  the  town,  now  flowed 
outside  the  district  occupied  by  houses,  and  the  citadel  was  at 
a  distance  from  the  inhabited  part.  Six  miles  from  the  city 
was  a  famous  temple,  more  famous  indeed  than  the  city  itself, 
dedicated  to  Juno  Lacinia  and  reverenced  by  all  the  neigh- 
bouring peoples.  There,  in  the  middle  of  a  grove,  densely 
grown  and  closed  in  by  stately  fir-trees,  were  rich  pastures, 
where  cattle  of  all  kinds,  sacred  to  the  goddess,  fed  without  a 
shepherd.  The  various  flocks  went  forth  separately  and  re- 
turned at  night  to  their  stalls,  never  harmed  by  the  stealthy  at- 
tacks of  wild  beasts  or  the  craft  of  man.  Hence  great  profits 
were  derived  from  the  cattle,  and  out  of  them  was  made  and 
dedicated  a  pillar  of  solid  gold.  The  temple  too  became  re- 
nowned for  its  wealth  as  well  as  for  its  sanctity.  Miracles  are 
commonly  attributed  to  such  famous  spots.  There  is  a  story 
of  an  altar  at  the  porch  of  the  temple,  the  ashes  of  which  are 
never  disturbed  by  any  breeze. 


B.  C.  215]  CROTON   ABANDONED  413 

The  citadel  of  Croton,  which  on  one  side  overhung  the  sea, 
while  on  the  other  it  faced  landward,  was  in  old  days  protected 
merely  by  its  natural  situation,  but  subsequently  it  was  like- 
wise inclosed  by  a  wall  at  the  part  where,  from  the  rocks 
behind,  Dionysius,  the  tyrant  of  Sicily,  had  once  taken  it  by 
stratagem.  This  fortress,  safe  enough,  as  was  thought,  was 
now  held  by  the  Crotoniat  aristocracy,  whom  their  own  people 
along  with  the  Bruttians  were  beleaguring.  At  last  the  Brut- 
tians,  seeing  that  it  was  impregnable  to  their  attacks,  out  of 
sheer  necessity  implored  the  aid  of  Hanno.  He  endeavoured 
to  force  the  Crotoniats  to  a  surrender,  stipulating  that  they 
would  allow  the  admission  of  a  Bruttian  colony,  and  so  recover 
its  ancient  populousness  for  a  city  which  wars  had  wasted  and 
desolated.  But  on  not  one  of  the  citizens,  except  Aristo- 
machus,  had  he  any  effect.  They  declared  they  would  perish 
sooner  than  be  confounded  with  Bruttians  and  have  to  ac- 
cept strange  ceremonies,  customs  and  laws,  and  ultimately 
even  a  strange  language.  Aristomachus  himself  alone  de- 
serted to  Hanno,  finding  that  his  arguments  could  not  induce 
his  companions  to  surrender,  and  that  he  could  not  get  a 
chance  of  betraying  the  citadel,  as  he  had  betrayed  the  town. 
Soon  afterward  some  Locrian  envoys,  having  with  Hanno's 
permission  entered  the  citadel,  urged  the  occupants  to  let 
themselves  be  transferred  to  Locri  instead  of  resolving  to  face 
the  last  extremity.  They  had  previously  obtained  leave  to 
make  the  offer  from  Hannibal,  to  whom  they  had  despatched 
an  embassy.  Thus  Croton  was  abandoned,  and  the  inhabit- 
ants were  marched  down  to  the  sea  and  put  on  shipboard. 
The  entire  population  took  their  departure  to  Locri. 

In  Apulia  even  the  winter  did  not  pass  quietly  between  the 
Romans  and  Hannibal.  The  consul  Sempronius  wintered  at 
Luceria,  Hannibal  not  far  from  Arpi.  Some  slight  skirmishes 
occurred  between  them,  as  occasion  offered,  or  as  this  or  that 
side  saw  an  opportunity.  In  these  the  Romans  improved  daily, 
becoming  more  cautious  and  more  proof  against  stratagem. 

In  Sicily  Hiero's  death  had  made  a  complete  change  for 
the  Romans.  The  throne  had  passed  to  Hieronymus  his 
grandson,  a  boy  little  likely  to  bear  liberty,  much  less  absolute 
power,  with  moderation.  Eagerly  did  guardians  and  friends 
lay  hold  of  such  a  temper,  to  hurry  it  into  every  excess. 
Hiero,  it  is  said,  foreseeing  that  this  would  be  so  in  the  future, 
wished  in  his  extreme  old  age  to  leave  Syracuse  free,  and  not 
to  let  a  kingdom,  which  had  been  won  and  consolidated  by 
merit,  be  ruined  by  the  ridiculous  follies  of  a  youthful  despot. 
But  his  purpose  met  with  the  most  determined  resistance  from 


414  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  215 

his  daughters,  who  thought  that  while  the  boy  would  have  the 
name  of  king,  the  control  of  everything  would  rest  with  them- 
selves and  their  husbands,  Andranodorus  and  Zoippus,  whom 
Hiero  intended  to  leave  his  principal  guardians.  It  was  not 
easy  for  a  man  in  his  ninetieth  year,  who  was  plied  day  and 
night  by  women's  flatteries,  to  exercise  his  mind  freely  and 
make  private  matters  subordinate  to  public  considerations. 
And  so  he  left  the  boy  fifteen  guardians,  and  implored  them 
on  his  death-bed  to  maintain  inviolate  that  loyalty  which  for 
fifty  years  he  had  himself  observed  toward  the  people  of  Rome, 
and  to  resolve  that  the  lad  should,  above  all  things,  tread  in  his 
footsteps  and  follow  the  ways  in  which  he  had  been  trained. 

Such  were  Micro's  instructions.  As  soon  as  he  had 
breathed  his  last,  his  will  was  produced  by  the  guardians,  and 
the  boy,  then  about  fifteen  years,  was  set  before  a  public  as- 
sembly, where  a  few,  placed  here  and  there  to  lead  cheers  of 
applause,  expressed  approval  of  the  document,  while  the  rest, 
as  if  they  had  lost  a  father  and  their  country  was  orphaned, 
saw  terror  everywhere.  Meantime  the  king's  funeral  was 
celebrated  with  more  love  and  affection  on  the  part  of  the  citi- 
zens than  regard  from  his  own  kin.  Then  the  other  guardians 
were  put  aside  by  Andranodorus,  who  kept  repeating  that 
Hieronymus  wras  now  a  young  man  and  capable  of  reigning. 
By  himself  abdicating  the  guardianship  which  he  shared  with 
several  others,  he  concentrated  in  his  own  person  the  influence 
of  all. 

Even  a  good  and  self-controlled  prince  would  not  have 
easily  found  favour  with  the  Syracusans,  had  he  come  after  the 
extreme  popularity  of  Hiero.  As  a  fact,  however,  Hierony- 
mus apparently  wished  to  deepen  their  regret  for  his  grand- 
father by  his  own  vices,  and  at  his  very  first  appearance  let 
them  see  how  different  everything  was.  Those  who  for  so 
many  years  had  never  seen  Hiero  and  his  son  Gelon  distin- 
guished by  dress  or  any  other  outward  badge  from  the  other 
citizens,  now  beheld  a  purple  robe,  a  diadem  and  an  armed 
body-guard,  and  even  occasionally  saw  the  king  issue  from  his 
palace  with  carriages  drawn  by  four  white  horses,  after  the 
fashion  of  the  tyrant  Dionysius.  This  haughty  state  and 
style  were  accompanied  by  a  corresponding  contempt  for  all 
men,  by  ears  contemptuously  deaf  to  entreaty  and  an  insulting 
tongue,  by  denial  of  access,  not  only  to  strangers  but  also  to 
his  guardians,  by  monstrous  lusts,  and  by  an  inhuman  cruelty. 
Consequently,  there  was  such  universal  terror  that  some  of  the 
guardians  forestalled  the  horrors  of  execution  by  suicide  or 
flight.  Three  of  them,  who  alone  could  enter  the  palace  with 


B.C.  215]  CHARACTER   OF   HIERONYMUS  415 

some  familiarity,  Andranodorus  and  Zoippus,  Hiero's  sons- 
in-law,  and  a  certain  Thraso,  commanded  indeed  not  much  at-' 
tention  on  other  matters,  but,  as  the  first  two  inclined  to  Car- 
thage, while  Thraso  was  for  alliance  with  Rome,  they  now  and 
then  by  their  quarrels  and  party  strife  attracted  to  themselves 
the  notice  of  the  young  prince.  Meanwhile  a  conspiracy 
directed  against  the  tyrant's  life  was  disclosed  by  a  soldier's 
servant,  a  lad  of  the  same  age  as  Hieronymus  and  accustomed 
from  boyhood  to  all  the  privileges  of  familiarity. 

The  informer  could  name  only  one  of  the  conspirators, 
Theodotus,  by  whom  he  had  himself  been  solicited.  The  man 
was  instantly  arrested  and  delivered  up  to  Andranodorus  to 
be  tortured,  but  though  he  unhesitatingly  confessed  about 
himself,  he  was  silent  about  his  accomplices.  At  last,  when 
torn  by  every  torture  too  dreadful  for  human  endurance,  pre- 
tending that  he  was  conquered  by  his  sufferings,  he  aimed  his 
disclosure  not  at  the  really  guilty,  but  at  the  innocent,  falsely 
asserting  that  Thraso  was  the  author  of  the  plot,  and  that  they 
never  would  have  dared  such  an  attempt  but  for  their  reliance 
on  so  powerful  a  leader.  He  named,  too,  men  continually  at 
the  tyrant's  side,  men  who  occurred  to  him  as  the  cheapest  vic- 
tims, while  amid  his  anguish  and  groans  he  was  concocting  his 
story.  Thraso's  name  rendered  the  disclosure  particularly 
probable  to  the  tyrant's  mind.  He  was  therefore  at  once 
given  up  to  punishment,  and  in  his  penalty  were  included  the 
rest,  all  as  innocent  as  he.  Of  his  accomplices  not  a  single 
man  hid  himself  or  fled,  all  the  time  that  their  partner  in  the 
plot  was  being  tortured ;  such  was  their  confidence  in  the  hon- 
our and  fidelity  of  Theodotus,  and  such  Theodotus's  own  reso- 
lution in  keeping  his  secret. 

The  sole  tie  of  friendship  with  Rome  was  gone  now  that 
Thraso  was  out  of  the  way,  and  there  was  at  once  a  decided 
tendency  to  revolt.  Envoys  were  despatched  to  Hannibal,  and 
he  sent  back  along  with  a  nobly-born  youth,  Hannibal  by 
name,  Hippocrates  and  Epicydes,  natives  of  Carthage,  who 
while  originally  descended  from  a  grandfather  exiled  from 
Syracuse,  were  on  the  mother's  side  Carthaginians.  Through 
them  an  alliance  was  formed  between  Hannibal  and  the  Syra- 
cusan  tyrant,  with  whom  they  remained,  with  Hannibal's  con- 
sent. Appius  Claudius,  the  praetor,  who  had  the  province  of 
Sicily,  on  hearing  this,  at  once  sent  envoys  to  Hieronymus. 
The  envoys  said  they  came  to  renew  the  alliance  which  had 
existed  with  his  grandfather,  but  they  were  heard  and  dis- 
missed with  ridicule,  Hieronymus  asking  them  in  jest  how 
they  had  fared  in  the  battle  of  Cannae.  He  could  hardly  be- 


416  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [6.0.215 

lieve,  he  said,  the  story  of  Hannibal's  envoys,  and  he  wished 
to  know  the  truth,  that  he  might  make  his  plans  accordingly, 
as  to  whose  prospects  he  should  attach  himself.  The  Romans 
told  him  that  they  would  come  back,  when  he  began  to  listen 
seriously  to  such  communications,  and  warning  rather  than 
begging  him  not  to  break  faith  with  them  lightly,  took  their 
departure. 

Hieronymus  now  sent  an  embassy  to  Carthage  to  conclude 
a  treaty  based  on  his  alliance  with  Hannibal.  It  was  stipu- 
lated that,  when  they  had  driven  the  Romans  out  of  Sicily, 
which  would  soon  be  accomplished  by  sending  a  fleet  and  an 
army,  the  river  Himera,  which  about  divides  the  island,  should 
be  the  boundary  between  the  Syracusan  and  Carthaginian 
dominions.  Hieronymus,  puffed  up  by  the  flatteries  of  the 
people,  who  bade  him  remember  not  only  Hiero,  but  likewise 
King  Pyrrhus,  his  maternal  grandfather,  soon  afterward  sent 
a  second  embassy,  to  express  his  opinion  that  in  fairness  all 
Sicily  ought  to  be  ceded  to  him,  while  the  empire  of  Italy 
might  be  claimed  as  a  right  by  the  Carthaginians.  This  fickle- 
ness and  boastful  temper  in  a  headstrong  boy  excited  no  sur- 
prise and  called  forth  no  censure  from  the  Carthaginians, 
who  cared  only  to  detach  him  from  the  Romans. 

Everything,  however,  with  him  was  tending  to  a  swift  de- 
struction. He  had  sent  forward  Hippocrates  and  Epicydes 
with  two  thousand  armed  men  each,  to  make  attempts  on  the 
towns  held  by  Roman  garrisons,  while  he  himself  with  the  rest 
of  his  army,  consisting  of  about  fifteen  thousand  infantry  and 
cavalry,  had  started  for  Leontini.1  The  conspirators,  all  of 
whom  happened  to  be  soldiers,  took  possession  of  an  empty 
house,  overlooking  a  narrow  street  along  which  the  king  used 
to  go  to  the  forum.  There  all  but  one  man  stood  ready  armed, 
awaiting  his  passage,  and  to  that  man  (Dinomenes  was  his 
name),  as  he  was  in  the  body-guard,  was  assigned  the  part  of 
detaining  on  some  pretext  the  rear  of  the  procession,  the  mo- 
ment the  king  approached  the  door  of  the  house.  All  was 
done  as  had  been  arranged.  Dinomenes,  pretending  to  disen- 
tangle his  foot  from  a  knot  fastened  round  it,  stopped  the 
throng,  and  caused  such  a  gap  in  it  that  the  king,  attacked  as 
he  passed,  without  any  armed  attendants,  was  stabbed  with 
several  wounds  before  succour  could  arrive.  Shouts  and  up- 
roar reached  the  ears  of  the  others,  and  a  shower  of  darts  was 
discharged  at  Dinomenes,  who,  it  was  now  clearly  seen,  was 
stopping  the  way.  Yet  he  escaped  them  with  but  two  wounds. 
The  flight  of  the  body-guard  followed  the  instant  they  saw  the 

1  Now  Lentini.     It  lies  a  short  distance  northwest  of  Syracuse. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  215]         ASSASSINATION  OF  HIERONYMUS  417 

king  prostrate.  Some  of  the  assassins  hurried  to  the  forum, 
and  found  a  people  overjoyed  at  their  freedom ;  some  went  to 
Syracuse,  to  forestall  the  designs  of  Andranodorus  and  the 
other  royal  ministers. 

In  this  critical  state  of  affairs,  Appius  Claudius,  seeing  war 
starting  up  at  his  doors,  informed  the  senate  by  letter  that 
Sicily  was  attaching  itself  to  the  Carthaginians  and  to  Han- 
nibal. He  himself,  to  check  the  Syracusan  plans,  concen- 
trated all  his  garrison  forces  on  the  boundary-line  between 
the  Roman  province  and  the  king's  territory.  At  the  year's 
close  Quintus  Fabius,  by  the  authority  of  the  senate,  fortified 
and  garrisoned  Puteoli,1  which  during  the  war  had  begun  to 
be  used  largely  as  a  market.  Then  he  went  to  Rome  for  the 
elections,  of  which  he  gave  notice  by  proclamation  for  the 
first  election-day  he  could  fix.  He  went  straight  from  his 
journey  past  the  city  into  the  Campus  Martius.  That  day  the 
first  voting  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  junior  century  of  the  tribe  of 
Anio,2  and  this  nominated  to  the  consulate  Titus  Otacilius  and 
Marcus  ^milius  Regillus.  Thereupon  Quintus  Fabius,  as 
soon  as  there  was  silence,  made  the  following  speech  : 

"  If  we  had  peace  in  Italy,  or  war  with  an  enemy  who 
allowed  somewhat  wide  room  for  carelessness,  he  who  should 
put  any  obstacle  in  the  way  of  your  partialities  when  you  go 
to  the  poll  to  confer  office  on  whom  you  choose,  would  in 
my  opinion  be  quite  unmindful  of  your  freedom.  When,  how- 
ever, we  know  that  in  this  war,  with  this  enemy,  no  general 
has  ever  blundered  without  terrible  disaster  to  us,  you  ought 
to  begin  your  voting  for  the  election  of  consuls  with  as  much 
care  as  you  go  armed  to  the  battle-field.  Every  one  should 
say  to  himself,  '  I  nominate  a  consul  who  is  a  match  for  Han- 
nibal.' This  year  at  Capua,  Vibellius  Taurea  of  Campania, 
a  knight  of  the  first  rank,  challenged  us,  and  he  was  met  by  a 
Roman  knight  of  the  first  rank,  Asellus  Claudius.  Against  a 
Gaul  who  in  old  days  challenged  us  on  the  bridge  over  the 
Anio  our  fathers  sent  Titus  Manlius,  in  the  pride  of  his 
strength  and  courage.  It  was  for  the  same  reason,  not  many 
years  afterward,  I  must  maintain,  that  you  had  no  distrust  of 
Marcus  Valerius,  when  he  armed  himself  for  the  combat 
against  a  Gaul  who  challenged  us  in  like  fashion.  As  we  de- 
sire to  have  infantry  and  cavalry  superior  to  the  enemy,  or  at 
least  his  match,  so  let  us  look  out  a  commander-in-chief  who 
is  a  match  for  the  enemy's  general.  Even  when  we  have 

1  Now  Pozzuoli,  a  few  miles  north  of  Naples. — D.  O. 
*  This  chance  of  the  first  vote  seems  to  have  decided  the  consular  elec- 
tions more  frequently  than  the  mere  circumstance  would  warrant. — D.  O. 

27 


418  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.215 

chosen  the  first  general  in  our  state,  a  man  hastily  selected 
and  appointed  for  a  year  will  be  pitted  against  a  veteran  officer 
always  in  command,  who  has  none  of  the  restraints  of  either 
time  or  law  to  hinder  him  from  doing  and  directing  everything 
just  as  the  exigencies  of  war  require.  With  us,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  year  closes  in  the  midst  of  our  preparations,  and 
when  we  are  only  beginning  our  work. 

"  I  have  said  enough  to  show  what  kind  of  men  you  ought 
to  appoint  consuls.  It  remains  for  me  to  say  a  few  words  about 
those  in  whose  favour  the  first  vote  has  been  given.  Marcus 
yEmilius  Regillus  is  the  priest  of  Quirinus,  and  we  can  not  let 
him  leave  his  sacred  duties  or  keep  him  at  home  without 
neglecting  either  what  is  due  to  the  gods  or  what  is  due  to 
the  war.  Otacilius  is  the  husband  of  my  sister's  daughter,  by 
whom  he  has  children.  Still,  what  you  have  done  for  me 
and  my  forefathers  is  such  that  I  must  hold  the  public  in- 
terest dearer  than  my  private  connections.  Any  sailor  or  pas- 
senger can  steer  a  ship  in  a  calm  sea,  but  when  a  furious  tem- 
pest has  burst  forth  and  the  ship  is  hurried  along  by  the  gale 
through  troubled  waters,  then  there  is  need  of  a  good  man 
and  a  pilot.  We  are  not  sailing  over  a  tranquil  sea,  but  have 
already  been  all  but  sunk  by  several  storms,  and  therefore  you 
ought  with  the  utmost  care  to  consider  and  take  thought  who 
is  to  sit  at  the  helm. 

"  We  have  tried  you,  Otacilius,  in  a  comparatively  small 
matter.  You  have  certainly  given  us  no  proof  why  we  should 
trust  you  in  a  greater.  This  year  we  equipped  a  fleet  which 
you  commanded,  with  three  objects.  It  was  to  ravage  the 
coast  of  Africa ;  to  protect  for  us  the  shores  of  Italy ;  above 
all,  it  was  to  hinder  the  transport  of  re-enforcements  with 
money  and  supplies  for  Hannibal.  Appoint  Otacilius  consul, 
if  he  has  rendered,  I  do  not  say  all,  but  some  one  of  these  serv- 
ices to  his  country.  If,  while  you  commanded  the  fleet,  any 
help  from  home  reached  Hannibal  safe  and  entire,  just  as  if 
there  were  peace  at  sea ;  if,  again,  the  coast  of  Italy  has  been 
this  year  more  dangerous  than  that  of  Africa,  what  can  you  say 
for  pitting  you,  above  all  men,  as  our  general,  against  Hanni- 
bal? If  you  were  consul,  we  should  think  it  necessary  to 
nominate  a  dictator  after  the  example  of  our  fathers.  Nor 
could  you  feel  angry  at  some  one  of  our  Roman  citizens  being 
esteemed  superior  in  war  to  yourself.  It  is  no  man's  interest 
more  than  your  own,  Otacilius,  that  a  burden  should  not  be 
laid  on  your  shoulders  which  would  crush  you. — I  most  de- 
cidedly advise  you,  fellow-citizens,  that  in  the  very  same  spirit 
in  which,  were  you  standing  armed  for  battle,  you  would 


B.  c.  214]    FABIUS  AND  MARCELLUS  RE-ELECTED  419 

choose  two  commanders,  under  whose  leadership  and  guid- 
ance you  would  wish  to  fight,  so  you  should  choose  your  con- 
suls to-day;  men  to  whom  your  children  are  to  swear  the 
oath,  at  whose  bidding  they  are  to  muster,  under  whose  eye 
and  direction  they  are  to  serve.  The  lake  of  Trasumennus 
and  the  field  of  Cannae  are  melancholy  examples  to  recall, 
but  they  are  also  a  salutary  warning  to  beware  of  like  dis- 
aster.— Herald,  summon  back  to  the  poll  the  juniors  of  the 
tribe  of  Anio." 

As  Titus  Otacilius  meanwhile  kept  furiously  exclaiming 
and  roaring  out  at  Fabius  that  he  wanted  his  own  consulship 
prolonged,  the  consul  ordered  the  lictors  to  step  up  to  him. 
Having  gone  straight  from  his  journey  to  the  Campus  Mar- 
tius,  he  had  not  entered  the  city,  and  so  he  reminded  Otacilius 
that  the  rods  were  still  carried  before  him,  together  with  the 
axes.1  Again  the  first  century  went  to  the  poll,  and  bestowed 
the  consulship  on  Quintus  Fabius  Maximus  for  the  fourth 
and  on  Marcus  Marcellus  for  the  third  time.  The  rest  of  the 
centuries,  without  a  difference,  nominated  the  same  men.  One 
praetor  too  was  re-elected,  Quintus  Fulvius  Flaccus.  Among 
the  others  were  appointed  Titus  Otacilius  Crassus  for  the 
second  time,  Quintus  Fabius,  the  consul's  son,  at  the  time 
curule  aedile,  and  Publius  Cornelius  Lentulus.  As  soon  as  the 
elections  for  praetors  were  over,  the  senate  passed  a  resolu- 
tion assigning  the  city  jurisdiction  with  extraordinary  powers 
to  Quintus  Fulvius,  and  he  was  specially  to  have  the  control 
of  the  Capitol,  when  the  consuls  had  gone  to  the  war.  There 
were  great  floods  twice  that  year,  and  the  Tiber  overflowed 
the  district  with  a  terrible  ruin  of  houses  and  destruction  both 
of  cattle  and  human  beings. 

It  was  in  the  fifth  year  of  the  second  Punic  war  that  Quin- 
tus Fabius  Maximus  for  the  fourth,  and  Marcus  Marcellus  for 
the  third  time  entered  on  the  consulship,  attracting  to  them- 
selves in  an  unusual  degree  the  sympathies  of  the  citizens. 
For  many  years  there  had  not  been  such  a  pair  of  consuls. 
Old  men  recalled  how  in  like  manner  Maximus  Rullus  and 
Publius  Decius  had  been  nominated  consuls  for  the  war  with 
the  Gauls,  and  subsequently  Papirius  and  Carvilius,  to  oppose 
the  Samnites  and  Bruttians  with  the  peoples  of  Lucania  and 
Tarentum.  Marcellus,  being  with  the  army,  was  appointed 
consul  in  his  absence ;  Fabius,  who  was  present,  and  himself 
holding  the  elections,  had  his  consulship  prolonged.  The 
crisis  and  the  exigencies  of  war,  involving  peril  to  the  state's 
existence,  rendered  it  impossible  for  any  one  to  criticise  the 
1  That  is,  that  what  was  practically  martial  law  still  pertained. — D.  O. 


420  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  214 

precedent,  or  to  suspect  the  consul  of  ambition.  Indeed,  they 
rather  praised  his  magnanimity ;  for  knowing,  as  he  did,  that 
the  state  needed  a  supremely  able  commander,  and  that  he  was 
unquestionably  such  himself,  he  thought  less  of  any  personal 
unpopularity  which  might  arise  out  of  his  election  than  of  the 
interests  of  the  country. 

On  the  day  on  which  the  consuls  entered  on  office  the 
senate  was  convoked  in  the  Capitol.  First  of  all  it  was  de- 
cided that  the  consuls  were  to  determine  by  lot  or  by  arrange- 
ment between  themselves,  previous  to  their  departure  for  the 
army,  which  of  them  should  hold  the  elections  for  the  ap- 
pointment of  censors.  All  who  were  with  the  troops  had  their 
commands  prolonged,  and  orders  to  remain  in  their  respective 
provinces  were  given  to  Tiberius  Gracchus  in  Luceria,  where 
he  was  with  an  army  of  volunteer  slaves,  to  Terentius  Varro 
in  Picenum,  and  to  Manlius  Pomponius  in  the  country  of  the 
Gauls.  Among  the  praetors  of  the  past  year  Quintus  Mucius 
was  to  have,  as  pro-praetor,  the  province  of  Sardinia,  and  Mar- 
cus Valerius  was  to  be  near  Brundisium  to  have  charge  of  the 
coast  and  keep  a  vigilant  eye  on  -all  the  movements  of  Philip, 
King  of  Macedon.  To  Publius  Cornelius  Lentulus,  as  praetor. 
Sicily  was  assigned  as  his  province,  and  to  Titus  Otacilius  the 
fleet,  which  he  had  commanded  in  the  previous  year  against 
the  Carthaginians. 

Several  portents  were  announced  that  year.  The  more 
they  were  believed  by  simple-minded  and  pious  people,  the 
more  numerous  were  the  reports  of  them.  At  Lanuvium, 
within  the  Temple  of  Juno  Sospita,  crows,  it  was  said,  had 
built  a  nest;  in  Apulia  a  palm  with  green  leaves  had  caught 
fire ;  at  Mantua  an  overflow  of  the  waters  of  the  river  Mincius 
had  had  the  appearance  of  blood ;  at  Cales  it  had  rained  chalk, 
and  at  Rome  blood  in  the  cattle-market ;  in  the  Insteian  quar- 
ter an  underground  spring  had  burst  forth  with  such  a  gush 
of  water  that  some  jars  and  casks  on  the  spot  were  overturned 
and  swept  away,  as  it  were  by  the  force  of  a  torrent ;  lightning 
had  struck  a  public  hall  on  the  Capitol,  a  temple  of  Vulcan 
in  the  Campus  Martius,  a  walnut-tree  and  a  public  road  in  the 
Sabine  country,  as  well  as  the  city  wall  and  a  gate  at  Gabii. 
Soon  there  was  talk  of  other  miraculous  occurrences.  The 
spear  of  Mars  at  Praeneste  had  moved  of  its  own  accord ;  an 
ox  in  Sicily  had  spoken ;  a  child  in  its  mother's  womb  in  the 
Marrucine  country  had  shouted  "  Ho,  triumph !  " ;  a  woman  at 
Spoletum  had  been  turned  into  a  man ;  an  altar  had  been 
seen  in  the  sky  at  Hadria,  with  forms  of  men  round  it  in  white 
apparel.  And  even  at  Rome  itself,  within  the  city,  a  swarm 


B.  C.  214]  PRODIGIES  AT   ROME  421 

of  bees  had  been  seen  in  the  forum,  and  immediately  after- 
ward, some  persons  declaring  that  they  beheld  armed  legions 
on  the  Janiculum,  roused  the  citizens  to  arms.  Those  who 
were  on  the  Janiculum  at  the  time  declared  that  no  one  had 
been  seen  there  except  the  ordinary  inhabitants  of  the  hill. 
For  these  portents  expiation  was  made  with  victims  of  the 
larger  kind  by  direction  of  the  diviners,  and  a  day  of  public 
prayer  was  appointed  to  all  the  gods  who  had  shrines  at 
Rome. 

Having  done  all  that  was  proper  to  make  peace  with 
Heaven,  the  consuls  took  the  senate's  opinion  on  the  public 
policy,  the  conduct  of  the  war,  the  required  amount,  and  the 
disposal  of  the  military  forces.  It  was  decided  to  carry  on  the 
war  with  eighteen  legions.  Each  consul  was  to  have  two  for 
himself.  Gaul,  Sicily,  and  Sardinia  were  to  be  held  each  with 
two  legions ;  Quintus  Fabius  the  praetor  was  to  have  two  for 
the  charge  of  Apulia,  and  Tiberius  Gracchus  two  of  volunteer 
slaves  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Luceria.  One  was  to  be  left 
for  Caius  Terentus,  the  pro-consul,  in  Picenum,  one  for  Mar- 
cus Valerius  with  the  fleet  near  Brundisium,  and  two  were  to 
garrison  Rome.  To  make  up  the  full  number  it  was  neces- 
sary to  levy  six  new  legions.  These  the  consuls  were  directed 
to  raise  at  the  earliest  opportunity,  as  well  as  to  equip  a  fleet, 
so  that  with  the  ships  stationed  off  the  coast  of  Calabria  the 
fleet  that  year  would  be  made  up  to  a  hundred  and  fifty  war 
ships. 

The  troops  having  been  levied,  and  a  hundred  new  vessels 
launched,  Quintus  Fabius  held  elections  for  the  appointment 
of  censors.  Marcus  Atilius  Regulus  and  Publius  Furius 
Philus  were  appointed.  As  rumours  of  the  war  in  Sicily 
gained  ground,  Titus  Otacilius  received  orders  to  proceed 
thither  with  his  fleet.  Sailors  were  wanting,  and  so  the  con- 
suls, by  direction  of  a  resolution  of  the  senate,  issued  an  edict 
to  the  effect  that  all  persons  who  themselves  or  whose  fathers 
in  the  censorship  of  Lucius  ^milius  and  Caius  Flaminius  had 
been  assessed  from  five  thousand  to  ten  thousand  denarii,  or 
whose  property  had  subsequently  reached  that  amount,  should 
furnish  one  sailor,  with  six  months'  pay ;  those  whose  assess- 
ment was  from  ten  thousand  to  thirty  thousand  denarii,  three 
sailors,  with  a  year's  pay ;  those  above  thirty  thousand  up  to 
a  hundred  thousand,  five  sailors ;  those  above  a  hundred 
thousand,  seven  sailors.  Senators  were  to  furnish  eight,  with 
a  year's  pay.  Sailors  were  supplied  in  accordance  with  this 
edict ;  they  were  armed  and  equipped  by  their  masters,  and 
embarked  with  ready-cooked  rations  for  thirty  days.  This 


422  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [8.0.214 

was  the  first  occasion  on  which  a  Roman  fleet  was  manned 
with  seamen  furnished  at  private  cost.1 

These  unusually  great  preparations  especially  alarmed  the 
people  of  Campania,  who  feared  that  the  Romans  would  begin 
the  year's  campaign  with  the  siege  of  Capua.  So  they  sent 
envoys  to  Hannibal,  imploring  him  to  advance  with  his  army 
to  Capua,  as  new  armies  were  being  levied  at  Rome  to  attack 
the  city,  no  other  defection  having  so  greatly  provoked  the 
wrath  of  the  Romans.  With  such  agitation  did  they  report 
the  news  that  Hannibal,  assured  that  he  must  be  prompt  or 
the  Romans  would  forestall  him,  quitted  Arpi  and  established 
himself  in  his  old  camp  at  Tifata,  overlooking  Capua.  From 
Tifata,  where  he  left  some  Numidian  and  Spanish  troops  as  a 
defence  both  for  his  camp  and  for  Capua,  he  marched  with 
the  rest  of  his  army  to  Lake  Avernus,  on  the  pretext  of  offering 
sacrifice,  but  really  to  make  an  attempt  on  Puteoli  and  its  gar- 
rison. Fabius,  on  being  informed  that  Hannibal  had  moved 
from  Arpi  and  was  going  back  into  Campania,  marched  night 
and  day  without  intermission,  and  returned  to  his  army.  He 
also  directed  Tiberius  Gracchus  to  bring  up  his  forces  from 
Luceria,  and  Quintus  Fabius,  the  praetor,  the  consul's  son,  to 
take  the  place  of  Gracchus  in  those  parts.  At  the  same  time 
two  praetors  started  for  Sicily,  Publius  Cornelius  to  command 
the  army,  and  Otacilius  to  have  charge  of  the  coast  and  of  the 
marine.  The  other  praetors  went  to  their  respective  prov- 
inces. Those  whose  term  of  office  had  been  extended,  were 
appointed  to  the  same  countries  as  in  the  past  year. 

While  Hannibal  was  at  Lake  Avernus,  five  young  nobles 
from  Tarentum  came  to  him.  They  had  been  taken  prisoners, 
some  at  Lake  Trasumennus,the  others  at  Cannes,  and  had  been 
sent  to  their  homes  with  the  courteous  treatment  which  the 
Carthaginians  had  uniformly  shown  to  all  the  Roman  allies. 
They  told  Hannibal  that  out  of  gratitude  for  his  kindness  they 
had  prevailed  on  a  majority  of  the  young  men  of  Tarentum  to 
prefer  his  friendship  and  alliance  to  that  of  Rome.  As  envoys 
sent  by  their  fellow-townsmen  they  begged  Hannibal  to  march 
his  army  closer  to  Tarentum.  Only  let  his  banners  and  his 
camp  be  seen  from  Tarentum,  and  the  city  would  come  over 
to  him  without  a  moment's  delay.  The  commons  were  under 
the  control  of  the  younger  men,  and  the  government  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  commons.  Hannibal  praised  them  warmly, 
loaded  them  with  splendid  gifts,  and  bade  them  return  home 
and  mature  their  plans.  He  would  be  with  them  himself  at 

1  The  sailors  and  marines  were  always  enlisted  from  the  lower  classes. 
These,  however,  appear  to  have  been  slaves. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  214]  MOVEMENTS   OF   THE   ARMIES.  423 

the  right  moment.  With  this  assurance  he  dismissed  the 
Tarentine  envoys. 

Meanwhile  he  was  himself  full  of  eagerness  to  secure  Ta- 
rentum.  It  was,  he  saw,  a  rich  and  noble  city,  situated  too  on 
the  coast,  and  most  conveniently  for  Macedonia;  and  that 
King  Philip  could  make  for  this  port,  were  he  to  cross  into 
Italy,  as  the  Romans  held  Brundisium.  So,  having  finished 
the  sacrifice  he  had  come  to  offer,  and  ravaged  during  his  stay 
the  country  round  Cumse  as  far  as  the  promontory  of  Mise- 
num,  he  suddenly  moved  his  army  toward  Puteoli,  to  sur- 
prise the  Roman  garrison.  It  consisted  of  six  thousand  men, 
and  the  place  was  defended  by  fortifications,  as  well  as  natu- 
rally strong.  Here  the  Carthaginian  lingered  three  days.  He 
attempted  every  part  of  the  fortress  without  any  success,  and 
then,  more  out  of  rage  than  with  any  hope  of  becoming  mas- 
ter of  the  city,  marched  to  plunder  the  district  round  Naples. 
His  arrival  in  a  country  bordering  on  their  own  stirred  the 
populace  of  Nola,  who  had  long  disliked  the  Romans  and 
been  at  feud  with  the  senate  of  their  state.  Envoys  accord- 
ingly came  to  invite  Hannibal  with  a  confident  promise  of 
the  surrender  of  the  town.  Their  design  was  anticipated  by 
Marcellus,  who  was  summoned  by  the  principal  citizens.  In 
one  day  he  reached  Suessula  from  Cales,  although  the  river 
Vulturnus  had  delayed  his  passage.  On  the  following  night 
he  threw  into  Nola  six  thousand  infantry  and  three  hundred 
cavalry  as  a  protection  to  the  senate.  While  the  consul  was 
doing  everything  with  promptness  to  secure  the  place  against 
attack,  Hannibal  was  frittering  away  his  time ;  as  he  had  twice 
already  made  the  same  attempt  without  success,  it  became 
rather  slow  to  put  faith  in  the  people  of  Nola. 

The  consul,  Quintus  Fabius,  about  this  same  time  marched 
to  attack  Casilinum,  which  was  held  by  a  Carthaginian  gar- 
rison, while,  almost  as  if  by  mutual  arrangement,  Hanno  on  one 
side  advanced  from  Bruttium  with  a  large  force  of  infantry 
and  cavalry  on  Beneventum,  and  Gracchus  on  the  other  side 
approached  the  place  from  Luceria.  The  latter  was  the  first 
to  enter  the  town.  Soon  afterward,  hearing  that  Hanno  had 
encamped  about  three  miles  from  it  by  the  river  Caloris,  and 
was  ravaging  the  country,  he  too  quitted  the  walls  and  took  up 
a  position  about  a  mile  from  the  enemy.  There  he  harangued 
his  troops.  His  legions  were  to  a  great  extent  made  up  of 
volunteer  slaves,  who  preferred  silently  earning  their  free- 
dom by  another  year's  service  to  demanding  it  publicly.  Yet, 
as  he  left  his  winter  quarters,  he  had  heard  murmurs  among 
the  soldiers  on  their  march,  who  asked  whether  they  were 


424  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  214 

never  to  serve  as  free  men.  He  had  told  the  senate  by  letter 
that  the  question  was  not  so  much  what  the  men  wanted  as 
what  they  had  deserved,  adding  that  up  to  that  day  he  had  had 
from  them  good  and  brave  services,  and  that  all  they  wanted 
to  make  them  the  equal  to  a  regular  soldier  was  their  free- 
dom. Leave  was  given  him  to  do  in  the  matter  whatever 
he  thought  was  for  the  state's  interest.  Accordingly,  before  he 
engaged  the  enemy,  he  publicly  gave  out  that  the  long-hoped- 
for  opportunity  of  winning  their  freedom  had  arrived.  Next 
day  he  would  fight  a  pitched  battle  in  the  clear,  open  plain, 
where,  without  any  fear  of  ambuscades,  matters  could  be  de- 
cided by  genuine  valour.  Whoever  brought  back  the  head  of 
an  enemy,  should  at  once  by  his  order  be  a  free  man ;  but  any 
one  who  quitted  his  post  should  suffer  the  death  of  a  slave. 
Every  man's  fortune  was  in  his  own  hand ;  their  freedom  would 
be  guaranteed,  not  by  himself  only,  but  by  the  consul,  Marcus 
Marcellus,  and  the  entire  senate,  whom  he  had  consulted  re- 
specting it,  and  who  had  allowed  him  to  decide. 

Gracchus  then  read  out  to  them  the  consul's  despatch  and 
the  senate's  resolution.  Thereupon  they  raised  a  shout  of 
hearty  approval,  clamouring  for  battle,  and  furiously  insisting 
that  he  should  forthwith  give  the  signal.  Gracchus,  having 
given  out  that  he  would  fight  next  day,  dismissed  the  assem- 
bly. The  men  were  overjoyed,  especially  those  who  were  to 
have  their  freedom  as  the  reward  of  one  day's  good  service, 
and  spent  their  remaining  time  in  getting  their  arms  in 
readiness. 

Next  day,  as  soon  as  the  signal  began  to  sound,  they  were 
the  very  first  to  assemble,  prepared  and  armed,  at  the  gen- 
eral's tent.  With  sunrise  Gracchus  led  out  his  army  to  battle, 
The  enemy  too  showed  no  hesitation  about  fighting.  He  had 
seventeen  thousand  infantry,  chiefly  Bruttians  and  Lucanians, 
and  twelve  hundred  cavalry,  a  very  few  of  whom  were  Italians, 
the  rest  being  almost  all  Numidians  and  Moors.  The  fight  was 
both  fierce  and  long,  and  for  four  hours  hung  in  suspense. 
Nothing  proved  more  disadvantageous  to  the  Romans  than 
that  the  enemy's  heads  had  been  made  the  price  of  freedom. 
The  moment  a  soldier  had  promptly  slain  his  foe,  he  first 
wasted  his  time  in  labouring  to  cut  off  the  head  amid  the 
crowd  and  confusion ;  then,  as  his  right  hand  was  occupied 
in  holding  the  head,  he  who  had  been  the  bravest  ceased  to 
be  a  fighter,  and  so  the  battle  was  left  in  the  hands  of  the 
slow  and  timid.  Gracchus,  on  being  told  by  the  officers  that 
not  a  man  of  the  enemy  was  now  being  wounded  where  he 
stood,  but  only  those  who  had  fallen  were  being  beheaded, 


6.  c.  2i4]  THE  ROMANS  VICTORIOUS  425 

and  that  the  soldiers  carried  heads  in  their  right  hands  instead 
of  swords,  at  once  had  the  order  given  that  they  were  to  fling 
away  the  heads  and  rush  on  the  enemy.  "  Their  valour," 
he  said,  "  was  sufficiently  clear  and  conspicuous,  and  free- 
dom would  be  a  certainty  to  such  brave  men."  The  battle 
was  then  renewed,  and  the  cavalry  too  charged  the  enemy. 
The  Numidians  promptly  met  them,  and,  as  the  fight  of  the 
cavalry  was  now  as  fierce  as  that  of  the  infantry,  the  result 
again  became  doubtful.  The  generals  on  either  side  heaped 
reproaches  on  their  foe,  the  Roman  taunting  the  Bruttians 
and  Lucanians  with  having  been  repeatedly  beaten  and  con- 
quered by  his  ancestors,  while  the  Carthaginian  talked  of 
Roman  slaves  and  soldiers  fresh  from  a  slave's  prison,  till  at 
last  Gracchus  gave  out  that  they  must  not  hope  for  freedom, 
unless  on  that  very  day  the  enemy  were  routed  and  put  to 
flight. 

At  these  words  their  hearts  were  finally  roused,  and  again 
raising  a  shout,  like  different  men,  they  threw  themselves  with 
such  force  on  the  enemy  that  further  resistance  was  impossible. 
First  the  Carthaginian  troops  before  the  standards,  then  the 
soldiers  immediately  round  them,  fell  into  disorder,  and  at  last 
their  whole  army  was  broken.  Then  there  was  unmistakable 
flight,  and  a  rush  of  fugitives  into  the  camp,  in  such  panic 
and  confusion  that  even  at  the  camp  gates  and  ramparts  not 
a  man  stood  his  ground,  and  the  Romans,  who  pursued  in 
almost  unbroken  order,  began  another  fresh  battle  within  the 
enemy's  intrenchments.  As  the  fighting  was  confined  to  a 
narrow  space,  the  slaughter  was  all  the  more  dreadful.  It 
was  helped  on,  too,  by  some  prisoners  who,  snatching  up 
swords  amid  the  confusion  and  forming  themselves  into  a 
body,  cut  down  the  Carthaginians  in  the  rear  and  hindered 
their  flight.  Thus,  out  of  so  numerous  an  army,  barely  two 
thousand  men,  chiefly  cavalry,  escaped  with  their  commander ; 
all  the  rest  were  slain  or  captured.  Thirty-eight  standards 
were  also  taken. 

Of  the  victors  about  two  thousand  fell.  All  the  spoil,  ex- 
cept the  prisoners,  was  given  to  the  soldiers,  any  cattle  being 
also  excepted  which  should  be  recognised  by  the  owners  with- 
in thirty  days.  When  they  had  returned  to  the  camp,  laden 
with  booty,  about  four  thousand  of  the  volunteer  slaves,  who 
had  fought  rather  feebly,  and  had  not  broken  into  the  enemy's 
lines  with  their  comrades,  fearing  punishment,  posted  them- 
selves on  a  hill  not  far  from  the  camp.  Next  day  they  were 
marched  down  by  their  officers,  and  came,  the  last  of  all,  to  a 
gathering  of  the  men,  which  Gracchus  had  summoned.  The 


426  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  214 

pro-consul  first  rewarded  with  military  gifts  the  old  soldiers 
according  to  their  respective  courage  and  good  service  in  the 
late  action ;  then,  as  regarded  the  volunteer  slaves,  he  said 
that  he  wished  to  praise  all,  worthy  and  unworthy  alike,  rather 
than  on  that  day  to  punish  a  single  man.  "  I  bid  you  all  be 
free,"  he  added,  "  and  may  this  be  for  the  good,  the  prosperity, 
and  the  happiness  of  the  state,  as  well  as  of  yourselves !  " 

A  shout  of  intense  and  eager  joy  was  raised  at  these  words, 
while  the  men  one  moment  embraced  and  congratulated  each 
other,  and  the  next  lifted  their  hands  to  heaven  with  a  prayer 
for  every  blessing  on  the  Roman  people  and  on  Gracchus 
himself.  Gracchus  then  replied :  "  Before  placing  you  all  on 
the  equal  footing  of  freedom,  I  was  unwilling  to  distinguish 
any  of  you  as  brave  or  as  cowardly  soldiers.  Now  as  the 
state's  promise  has  been  already  fulfilled,  that  all  distinction 
between  courage  and  cowardice  may  not  be  obliterated,  I  re- 
quire you  to  give  in  to  me  the  names  of  the  men  who,  remem- 
bering that  they  had  shrunk  from  the  conflict,  so  lately  seceded 
from  us.  I  will  call  them  one  by  one  and  bind  them  by  an 
oath,  that,  those  only  excepted  who  shall  have  the  excuse  of 
illness,  so  long  as  they  serve  in  war,  they  will  take  their  meat 
and  drink  standing,  and  not  otherwise.  This  penalty  you  will 
bear  with  resignation,  if  you  reflect  that  you  could  not  possibly 
have  been  branded  with  any  lighter  mark  for  cowardice." 

He  then  gave  them  orders  to  gather  up  the  camp  furniture. 
The  soldiers  carrying  or  driving  their  spoil  with  mirth  and 
jests  came  again  to  Beneventum,  so  full  of  frolic  that  they 
seemed  to  be  returning  from  a  banquet  or  some  great  festival 
rather  than  from  a  battle-field.  All  the  people  of  Beneventum 
poured  out  in  a  crowd  and  met  them  at  the  gates,  embracing 
and  congratulating  the  men  and  offering  them  hospitality. 
Every  citizen  had  prepared  a  feast  in  the  open  court  of  his 
house ;  to  this  he  invited  the  soldiers  and  implored  Gracchus 
to  allow  them  to  feast.  Gracchus  gave  permission,  on  the  un- 
derstanding that  they  all  feasted  in  public,  every  man  at  his 
own  door.  All  things  necessary  were  brought  forth.  Wear- 
ing the  cap  of  liberty  *  or  with  heads  wreathed  with  white 
wool,  the  volunteer  slaves  feasted,  some  reclining,  others 
standing  and  serving  and  eating  at  the  same  time.  It  seemed 
a  suitable  thing  for  Gracchus  to  order,  as  he  did  on  his  re- 
turn to  Rome,  that  a  picture  of  that  celebrated  day  should  be 
painted  in  the  Temple  of  Liberty,  which  his  father  had  had 

1  The  pileus  was  shaped  like  the  modern  liberty  cap,  which  is  derived 
therefrom.  Shaving  the  head  and  donning  it  were  parts  of  the  ceremony 
of  emancipation. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  214]  HANNIBAL   REPULSED   AT   NOLA  427 

built  on  the  Aventine  out  of  money  from  state  fines  and  had 
then  dedicated. 

During  these  proceedings  at  Beneventum,  Hannibal,  after 
ravaging  the  whole  country  round  Naples,  moved  his  camp 
to  Nola.  As  soon  as  the  consul  knew  of  his  approach,  he  sent 
for  Pomponius,  the  pro-prgetor,  with  the  army  which  was  in 
camp  overlooking  Suessula,  and  prepared  to  meet  the  foe  and 
to  fight  without  any  delay.  In  the  silence  of  night,  through 
the  gate  that  was  farthest  from  the  enemy,  he  sent  out  Caius 
Claudius  Nero  with  the  main  strength  of  the  cavalry.  Nero 
had  orders  to  ride  stealthily  round  the  enemy's  army  and  fol- 
low them  up  slowly,  and  throw  himself  on  their  rear,  as  soon 
as  he  saw  the  battle  begun.  This  he  failed  to  accomplish, 
whether  from  mistaking  the  way  or  from  want  of  time  is  un- 
certain. The  action  began  in  his  absence,  and  though  the 
Romans  had  unquestionably  the  advantage,  yet,  as  the  cavalry 
did  not  show  themselves  at  the  right  moment,  the  arrange- 
ments for  the  day  were  disturbed.  Marcellus  dared  not  pursue 
his  foe  as  he  retired,  and  gave  the  signal  for  retreat.  But  more 
than  ten  thousand  of  the  enemy  are  said  to  have  been  slain 
that  day;  of  the  Romans  less  than  four  hundred.  Toward 
sunset  Nero,  with  horses  and  men  wearied  by  a  useless  march 
of  a  day  and  a  night,  without  so  much  as  having  seen  the 
enemy,  began  to  return,  and  was  very  heavily  censured  by  the 
consul,  who  declared  that  it  was  through  him  that  they  had 
not  repaid  the  foe  for  the  defeat  of  Cannae.  Next  day  the 
Romans  marched  out  to  battle,  while  the  Carthaginians  kept 
themselves  within  their  camp,  thus  silently  confessing  their 
own  defeat.  The  third  day  Hannibal,  who  had  now  relin- 
quished all  hope  of  possessing  himself  of  Nola,  an  attempt  in 
which  he  had  never  been  successful,  started  in  the  silence  of 
night  for  Tarentum,  where  he  saw  a  better  prospect  of  a  treach- 
erous surrender. 

The  Romans  conducted  their  affairs  at  home  with  quite 
as  much  spirit  as  in  the  camp.  The  censors,  who  from  the 
poverty  of  the  exchequer  were  entirely  free  from  all  business 
connected  with  building  contracts,  turned  their  attention  to 
controlling  morals  and  punishing  the  evil  ways  which  had 
arisen  out  of  war,  just  as  various  ills  are  naturally  developed 
in  the  body  by  long  disease.  First  they  summoned  all  who 
were  said  to  have  deserted  the  state  after  the  battle  of  Cannae, 
and  to  have  wished  to  leave  Italy.  Of  these  the  chief,  Lucius 
Caecilius  Metellus,  happened  then  to  be  quaestor.  He  and 
the  others  charged  with  the  same  offence  were  ordered  to  take 
their  trial,  and  as  they  could  not  clear  themselves,  sentence 


428  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  214 

was  pronounced  that  they  had  held  language  and  made 
speeches  to  the  injury  of  the  state  with  the  object  of  organ- 
izing a  conspiracy  for  the  abandonment  of  Italy.  Next  were 
summoned  the  ingenious  persons  who  sought  to  explain  away 
an  oath :  all  the  prisoners  who  thought  that  by  stealthily  steal- 
ing back  into  Hannibal's  camp  they  had  redeemed  their  sworn 
promise  to  return.  As  many  of  these  and  of  those  before- 
mentioned  as  had  a  horse  at  the  state's  expense  were  deprived 
of  it.  They  were  also  expelled  from  their  tribe  and  were  all 
disfranchised. 

The  attention  of  the  censors  was  not,  however,  confined  to 
the  regulation  of  the  senate  and  of  the  knights.  They  erased 
from  the  list  of  the  "  juniors  " 1  the  names  of  all  who  had  not 
completed  four  years'  service,  unless  they  had  had  proper  dis- 
charge on  the  excuse  of  illness.  More  than  two  thousand  of 
such  names  were  included  among  the  disfranchised,  and  all 
were  expelled  from  their  tribes.  To  this  cruelly  severe  action 
of  the  censors  was  added  a  harsh  resolution  of  the  senate. 
All  whom  the  censors  had  degraded  were  to  serve  on  foot  and 
be  sent  to  Sicily  with  what  remained  of  the  army  at  Cannae. 
This  class  of  soldiers  was  not  to  finish  its  term  of  service  till 
the  enemy  had  been  driven  out  of  Italy. 

Although  the  censors  from  the  poverty  of  the  exchequer 
still  held  aloof  from  all  contracts  for  the  repair  of  sacred  build- 
ings, for  the  furnishing  horses  for  the  state  carriages  and  from 
similar  things,  persons  used  to  the  taking  of  such  public  con- 
tracts flocked  to  them  in  numbers.  They  earnestly  implored 
the  censors  to  transact  business  and  to  give  out  contracts  just 
as  if  there  had  been  money  in  the  exchequer.  No  one,  they 
said,  would  make  a  claim  on  the  exchequer  till  the  war  was 
over.  Next  came  the  owners  of  the  slaves  whom  Tiberius 
Sempronius  had  manumitted  at  Beneventum.  They  said  that 
they  had  had  notice  from  the  three  commissioners  of  finances 
that  they  were  to  receive  the  value  of  their  slaves,  but  that  they 
would  not  take  the  money  till  the  war  was  at  an  end.  There 
being  this  zealous  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  commons  to 
relieve  the  necessities  of  the  exchequer,  the  money  first  of 
wards  and  then  of  widows  also  began  to  be  deposited,  and 
those  who  paid  in  this  money  felt  assured  that  they  could  not 
trust  it  more  safely  or  apply  it  more  piously  than  to  the  good 
faith  of  the  state.  Whatever  was  bought  or  provided  out  of 

1  Each  tribe  contained  ten  centuries,  being  one  of  "seniores"  and  one 
of  "  juniores"  for  each  of  the  five  military  classes  into  which  the  citizens 
were  divided.  The  latter  included  those  who  were  within  the  age  of  mili- 
tary service. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  214]     CASILINUM  TAKEN  BY  THE   ROMANS  429 

it  for  the  wards  or  widows,  was  paid  for  by  a  note  of  credit 
from  the  quaestor.  This  generous  spirit  among  private  citi- 
zens spread  from  the  city  to  the  camp;  not  a  horse-soldier, 
not  a  centurion,  would  accept  pay,  and  any  man  who  took  it 
they  tauntingly  called  a  mercenary. 

The  consul  Quintus  Fabius  had  his  camp  at  Casilinum. 
The  place  was  held  by  a  garrison  of  two  thousand  Campanians 
and  seven  hundred  of  Hannibal's  soldiers,  under  the  command 
of  Statius  Metius,  sent  thither  by  Cneius  Magius  Atellanus, 
who  that  year  was  supreme  magistrate,  and  who  had  been 
arming  the  slaves  and  populace  indiscriminately,  intending 
to  attack  the  Roman  camp  while  the  consul  was  intent  on  the 
siege  of  Casilinum.  Nothing  of  all  this  escaped  Fabius.  He 
therefore  sent  to  his  colleague  at  Nola,  saying  that,  while  he 
was  besieging  Casilinum,  there  must  be  another  army  to  op- 
pose the  Campanians;  either  he  should  come  himself,  leaving 
a  moderate  force  at  Nola,  or  if  he  were  detained  at  Nola  and 
still  felt  uneasy  about  Hannibal's  movements,  he  would  him- 
self summon  to  his  aid  the  pro-consul  Tiberius  Gracchus  from 
Beneventum. 

Marcellus,  on  receiving  this  message,  left  two  thousand 
troops  in  garrison  at  Nola,  and  marched  with  the  rest  of  his 
army  to  Casilinum.  The  Campanians,  who  were  beginning  to 
bestir  themselves,  became  quiet  on  his  arrival.  And  so  Casili- 
num now  came  to  be  besieged  by  the  two  consuls.  Fabius, 
finding  that  the  Roman  soldiers  suffered  continual  losses  in 
heedlessly  approaching  the  walls,  and  that  his  attempts  had 
but  little  success,  thought  it  best,  as  matters  of  more  impor- 
tance were  pressing  them,  to  retire  and  abandon  an  under- 
taking, small  in  itself,  but  quite  as  difficult  as  some  great  enter- 
prise. Marcellus,  however,  urged  that,  though  there  were 
many  things  which  a  great  general  ought  not  to  attempt,  yet 
he  must  not  relinquish  an  attempt  once  made,  as  the  world's 
opinion  has  great  weight,  for  good  or  ill.  He  thus  maintained 
his  point — that  the  attempt  should  not  be  abandoned.  Mant- 
lets, with  every  variety  of  engineering  work  and  machinery, 
were  now  applied  to  the  place,  and  the  Campanians  implored 
Fabius  to  let  them  depart  in  safety  to  Capua.  A  few  had 
passed  out,  when  Marcellus  seized  the  gate  by  which  they  were 
leaving,  and  then  began  an  indiscriminate  and  universal 
slaughter,  first,  near  the  gate,  and  soon  afterward  in  the  town, 
into  which  the  besiegers  had  rushed.  About  fifty  Campanians, 
who  were  the  first  to  leave,  fled  to  Fabius  for  refuge,  and 
under  his  protection  reached  Capua.  While  these  conferences 
and  protracted  appeals  for  protection  were  going  on,  Casili- 


430  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  214 

num,  at  a  favourable  moment,  was  taken.1  The  captives,  such 
as  were  Campanians,  and  all  who  were  Hannibal's  soldiers, 
were  sent  to  Rome,  and  there  imprisoned,  while  the  mass  of 
the  townsfolk  were  scattered  among  the  neighbouring  popu- 
lations to  be  under  surveillance. 

At  the  very  time  that  the  Romans,  after  their  success,  with- 
drew from  Casilinum,  Gracchus  despatched  some  cohorts, 
which  he  had  levied  in  Lucania,  under  the  command  of  an 
officer  of  allies,  on  a  marauding  expedition  into  the  enemy's 
territory.  They  had  dispersed  far  and  wide,  when  Hanno  fell 
on  them  and  repaid  his  foe  with  a  defeat  nearly  as  complete  as 
he  had  himself  sustained  at  Beneventum.  He  then  retired 
rapidly  into  Bruttium,  to  avoid  the  pursuit  of  Gracchus.  As 
to  the  consuls,  Marcellus  returned,  whence  he  came,  to  Nola, 
while  Fabius  marched  into  Samnium,  to  ravage  the  district, 
and  to  recover  by  arms  the  revolted  cities.  Caudium  in  Sam- 
nium was  cruelly  devastated;  far  and  wide  was  the  country 
fired,  and  the  cattle  and  inhabitants  carried  off  as  booty. 
Many  towns  were  taken  by  assault,  Compulteria,  Telesia,2 
Compsa,  Fugifulse,  and  Orbitanium.  Blanda  in  Lucania,  and 
^Ecse 3  in  Apulia,  were  stormed.  In  these  cities  five-and-twenty 
thousand  of  the  enemy  were  captured  or  slain.  Three  hundred 
deserters  were  recovered;  these  were  sent  to  Rome  by  the 
consul,  and  were,  without  exception,  scourged  in  the  comi- 
tium,  and  then  flung  from  the  rock.  All  this  was  done  by 
Quintus  Fabius  in  the  course  of  a  few  days. 

Marcellus  was  detained  by  illness  from  further  action  at 
Nola.  Meanwhile,  Quintus  Fabius,  the  praetor,  who  had 
charge  of  the  country  round  Luceria,  took  by  storm  the  town 
Acuca,  and  established  a  permanent  camp  at  Ardaneae.  Dur- 
ing these  operations  of  the  Romans  in  other  parts,  Hannibal 
had  pushed  on  to  Tarentum,  utterly  destroying  everything 
in  his  line  of  march.  Arrived,  at  last,  in  Tarentine  territory, 
his  army  began  to  advance  peacefully,  injuring  nothing,  and 
nowhere  quitting  its  proper  route.  This  was  clearly  done, 
:not  from  any  moderation  in  soldiers  or  general,  but  only  to 
i  win  the  good-will  of  the  Tarentines.  When  he  came  almost 
close  to  the  walls,  there  was  no  movement,  as  he  expected, 
at  the  sight  of  his  vanguard,  and  he  encamped  about  a  mile 

1  This  rather  involved  paragraph  seems  to  cover  a  breach  of  faith  on 
the  part  of  the  Romans  such  as  Livy  has  never  ventured  to  allege  against 
Hannibal.  The  character  of  Marcellus  was,  in  fact,  an  exaggeration  of 
typical  Roman  traits,  good  and  bad. — D.  O. 

1  Near  the  modern  Telese. — D.  O. 

8  Now  Troja.  The  exact  location  of  the  rest  of  these  towns  is  prob- 
lematical.— D.  O. 


B.  C.  214]  HANNIBAL   AT   TARENTUM  431 

from  the  city.  Three  days  before  Hannibal  approached  the 
walls  of  Tarentum,  Marcus  Livius  had  been  sent  by  the  pro- 
praetor Marcus  Valerius,  commander  of  the  fleet  at  Brun- 
disium.  He  had  organized  a  band  of  the  young  nobles,  and 
posted  guards,  as  circumstances  required,  at  all  the  gates  and 
walls  of  the  city,  and  by  his  unflagging  vigilance  night  and 
day  gave  neither  enemies  nor  doubtful  friends  an  opportunity 
of  attempting  anything.  Hannibal,  therefore,  after  uselessly 
passing  some  days  at  the  place,  as  none  of  those  who  had  paid 
him  a  visit  at  the  Lake  of  Avernus  either  came  themselves  or 
sent  him  any  message  or  letter,  saw  that  he  had  been  led 
thither  by  an  idle  promise,  and  moved  his  camp.  Even  now 
he  did  not  injure  the  Tarentine  territory,  still  clinging  to  the 
hope  of  shaking  their  loyalty,  though  his  pretended  mildness 
had  as  yet  done  him  no  good.  On  reaching  Salapia,1  as  mid- 
summer was  past,  and  he  liked  the  place  for  winter  quarters, 
he  collected  stores  of  corn  from  the  country  round  Metapon- 
tum  and  Heraclea.  His  Numidians  and  Moors  were  de- 
spatched on  plundering  raids  through  the  Sallentine  terri- 
tory, and  the  downs  bordering  on  Apulia.  Here  they  did  not 
get  much  booty;  it  was  chiefly  herds  of  horses  which  they 
drove  off.  Of  these,  about  four  thousand  were  distributed 
among  the  cavalry  to  be  broken  in. 

As  the  Romans  saw  that  a  war  which  could  not  possibly 
be  neglected  was  about  to  break  out  in  Sicily,  and  that  the 
tyrant's  death  had  given  the  Syracusans  enterprising  leaders 
rather  than  led  to  any  change  in  policy  or  in  public  feeling, 
they  assigned  the  province  to  one  of  the  consuls,  Marcus 
Marcellus.  The  murder  of  Hieronymus  was  instantly  followed 
by  a  mutiny  among  the  soldiers  at  Leontini,  and  fierce  shout- 
ings that  the  king's  death  must  be  expiated  by  the  blood  of 
the  conspirators.  But  soon  the  continually  repeated  phrase 
"  restored  freedom,"  welcome  to  the  ear,  the  hope  of  largess 
out  of  the  royal  treasure,  and  of  military  service  under  better 
leaders,  as  well  as  the  story  of  the  foul  crimes  and  fouler 
passions  of  the  tyrant,  so  wrought  on  their  minds,  that  the 
body  of  the  king,  so  lately  the  object  of  their  regret,  was  suf- 
fered by  them  to  lie  unburied.  While  the  rest  of  the  conspira- 
tors remained  on  the  spot  to  secure  the  control  of  the  army, 
two,  Theodotus  and  Sosis,  hurried  with  all  possible  speed  on 
the  king's  horses  to  Syracuse,  bent  on  the  immediate  over- 
throw of  the  royal  minister,  who  as  yet  knew  nothing.  Not 
only,  however,  were  they  forestalled  by  rumour,  and  in  such 
matters  nothing  flies  more  quickly,  but  also  by  a  messenger 
1  Now  Salpi.— D.  O. 


432  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  214 

from  among  the  king's  slaves.  And  so  Andranodorus  had 
secured  with  garrisons  both  the  island,1  the  citadel,  and  every 
other  convenient  position  he  could. 

The  sun  had  set,  and  the  light  was  quite  dim,  when  The- 
odotus  and  Sosis  rode  into  the  Hexapylon.2  Displaying  the 
king's  blood-stained  robe  and  the  cro^i  that  had  adorned  his 
head,  they  rode  through  the  Tycha,  and  summoning  the  peo- 
ple to  liberty  and  to  arms,  bade  them  assemble  in  the  Achra- 
dina.  Some  of  the  multitude  rushed  into  the  streets,  some 
stood  in  the  doorways,  others  looked  out  from  the  windows  of 
their  houses,  asking  incessantly  what  had  occurred.  Lights 
were  flaring  everywhere,  and  the  whole  city  was  in  an  up- 
roar; armed  men  were  gathering  in  the  open  spaces,  while  an 
unarmed  crowd  tore  down  from  the  Temple  of  Olympian 
Jupiter  the  spoils  taken  from  Gauls  and  Illyrians,  which  Hiero 
had  received  as  a  present  from  the  Roman  people,  and  had 
nailed  to  the  walls.  All  the  time  they  prayed  Jupiter  that  of 
his  good-will  and  favour  he  would  grant  them  the  use  of  those 
sacred  arms,  with  which  to  arm  themselves  in  defence  of  their 
country,  their  temples,  and  their  freedom.  The  multitude  also 
mingled  with  the  guards  stationed  in  the  principal  districts 
of  the  city.  Andranodorus  had,  among  other  points,  posted 
garrisons  in  the  public  granaries  in  the  island.  This  place, 
walled  in  with  square  stone  blocks,  and  fortified  like  a  castle, 
was  now  seized  by  the  band  of  youth  assigned  for  its  defence, 
and  a  message  was  sent  to  the  Achradina  that  the  granaries 
and  the  corn  were  in  the  possession  of  the  senate.3 

1  Ortygia. — D.  O. 

*  A  six-gated  tower  that  formed  part  of  the  city  wall. — D.  O. 

*  Syracuse  consisted  of  four  quarters,  each  in  itself  a  city.     They  were 
known  as  the  Island,  Tycha,  Achradina,  and  Neapolis. 

The  best  and  fullest  description  of  Syracuse,  as  it  was  in  the  first  cen- 
tury B.  c.,  still  a  great  and  magnificent  city,  though  with  its  old  glories 
greatly  diminished,  is  given  us  by  Cicero,  in  his  oration  against  Verres. 

"  Syracuse,  you  have  often  heard,  is  the  largest  and  finest  of  Greek 
cities.  So  indeed  it  is.  It  stands  in  a  particularly  strong  position,  and, 
whether  you  approach  it  by  sea  or  land,  it  is  singularly  beautiful  to  be- 
hold. It  has  two  harbours,  almost  surrounded  by  the  buildings  of  the 
city,  and  thus  forming  with  it  one  object  to  the  eye  of  the  spectator. 
They  have  separate  entrances,  but  they  join  and  meet  at  the  point  far- 
thest from  the  open  sea.  At  this  point  is  the  part  of  the  town  called  the 
Island,  divided  from  the  mainland  by  a  narrow  strait,  but  connected 
with  it  by  a  bridge.  So  large  is  the  city  that  it  may  be  said  to  consist  of 
four  cities.  One  of  these  is  the  Island,  already  mentioned,  which  is  sur- 
rounded by  the  two  harbours,  and  juts  out  toward  the  mouth  of  each  of 
them.  Here  is  what  was  once  the  palace  of  King  Hiero,  and  is  now  the 
residence  of  our  praetors.  Here  also  are  several  temples,  two  of  which  are 
conspicuously  magnificent — one  a  Temple  of  Diana,  the  other  of  Minerva, 
which  was  very  richly  adorned  before  the  coming  of  Verres.  At  the.  ex- 


B.  C.  214]         THE  REVOLUTION  AT  SYRACUSE  433 

At  daybreak  all  the  citizens,  armed  and  unarmed,  assem- 
bled in  the  Achradina,  at  the  senate-house.  There,  before  the 
altar  of  Concord,  situate  in  the  place,  one  of  the  leading  men, 
Polygenus  by  name,  delivered  a  speech,  which  was  both  frank 
and  moderate.  "  Men,"  he  said,  "  who  have  experienced 
servitude  and  its  humiliations  are  hot  against  an  evil  which 
they  know  well.  What  mischiefs  are  introduced  by  civil  dis- 
cord you  Syracusans  have  heard  from  your  forefathers,  rather 
than  actually  witnessed.  I  praise  you  for  taking  up  arms  so 
promptly;  I  shall  praise  you  still  more  if  you  do  not  use 
them,  unless  driven  by  extreme  necessity.  At  this  crisis  it  will 
be  well  to  send  envoys  to  Andranodorus,  to  warn  him  that 
he  submit  himself  to  the  senate  and  the  people,  open  the  gates 
of  the  island,  and  surrender  the  fort.  Should  he  wish  to  make 
a  regency  held  in  trust  for  another  into  a  tyranny  of  his  own, 
I,  for  my  part,  am  in  favour  of  our  claiming  back  our  liberties 
much  more  fiercely  from  Andranodorus  than  from  Hierony- 
mus." 

After  this  speech  the  envoys  were  despatched.  Then  began 
a  sitting  of  the  senate.  This,  though  during  Hiero's  reign  it 
had  continued  to  be  the  state  council,  had  never  been  con- 
vened or  consulted  after  his  death  until  that  day.  Andrano- 
dorus, on  the  arrival  of  the  deputies,  was  alarmed  by  the 
unanimity  of  the  citizens,  and  by  the  fact  that  not  only  were 
other  parts  of  the  city  in  military  occupation,  but  also  that 
the  most  strongly  fortified  part  of  the  island  had  been  sur- 
rendered and  was  in  hostile  hands.  But  his  wife,  Damarata, 
Hiero's  daughter,  with  the  spirit  of  a  queen  and  the  arrogance 
of  a  woman  still  swelling  within  her,  called  him  away  from 
the  envoys,  and  reminded  him  of  a  saying  often  in  the  mouth 
of  the  tyrant  Dionysius.  One  ought  to  leave  a  tyrant's  throne, 
he  would  say,  dragged  by  the  heels,  and  not  mounted  on  a 
horse.  It  was  easy,  at  any  moment  a  man  pleased,  to  retire 

tremity  of  this  same  Island  is  a  fresh-water  fountain,  named  Arethusa, 
of  extraordinary  size,  and  full  of  fish  ;  the  waves  of  the  sea  would  com- 
pletely overflow  it,  were  it  not  protected  from  them  by  a  stone  barrier. 
The  second  city  at  Syracuse  is  called  Achradina.  This  contains  a  very 
large  forum,  very  beautiful  porticoes,  a  richly-adorned  public  hall,  a  spa- 
cious senate-house,  and  a  noble  Temple  of  Jupiter  Olympus.  The  re- 
mainder of  this  city  consists  of  one  broad  street  and  several  cross-streets 
of  private  houses.  The  third  city  is  called  Tycha,  because  it  contained 
an  ancient  Temple  of  Fortune,  as  well  as  a  very  large  gymnasium  and 
several  sacred  buildings.  It  is  the  most  thickly-inhabited  quarter.  The 
fourth  city,  Neapolis,  as  it  is  called,  is  that  which  was  last  built.  At  its 
highest  point  is  a  spacious  theatre  ;  it  contains  also  two  very  fine  temples, 
one  of  Ceres,  the  other  of  Libera,  and  a  statue  of  Apollo,  known  by  the 
name  of  Temenites,  of  great  size  and  beauty,  which  Verres  would  not 
have  hesitated  to  carry  off,  had  he  been  able  to  remove  it," — W.  J.  B, 
588 


434  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  214 

from  holding  a  great  position ;  to  create  and  win  that  position 
was  arduous  and  difficult  "  Make  the  envoys,"  said  Damarata 
to  her  husband,  "give  you  a  little  time  for  deliberation;  use 
that  for  getting  soldiers  from  Leontini,  and  all  will  be  in  your 
power,  if  you  promise  them  the  royal  treasures." 

These  feminine  counsels  Andranodorus  neither  wholly  re- 
jected nor  immediately  accepted.  He  thought  there  was  a 
safer  way  of  securing  power  by  yielding  for  the  present  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  crisis.  So  he  bade  the  envoys  take  word 
back  that  he  would  submit  himself  to  the  senate  and  people. 
Next  day,  at  dawn,  he  threw  open  the  gates  of  the  island,  and 
entered  the  forum  in  the  Achradina.  There  he  mounted  the 
altar  of  Concord,  from  which  the  day  before  Polyaenus  had 
delivered  his  harangue,  and  began  a  speech,  in  which  first 
he  apologized  for  his  indecision.  He  had  kept  the  gates  shut, 
he  told  them,  not  to  separate  his  own  interests  from  those  of 
the  state,  but  because  he  feared  as  to  where  bloodshed  might 
end  when  swords  were  once  drawn,  and  doubted  whether  they 
would  be  satisfied  with  the  tyrant's  death,  sufficient  though 
it  was  for  freedom,  or  whether  all  who  were  connected  with 
the  palace  by  kinship  or  marriage,  or  in  some  official  capacity, 
would  be  slaughtered,  as  being  chargeable  with  another  man's 
guilt.  As  soon  as  he  saw  that  those  who  had  freed  their  coun- 
try were  resolved  to  keep  it  free,  and  that  all  were  consulting 
for  the  common  welfare,  he  no  longer  hesitated  to  give  back 
to  his  country  his  person  and  all  things  intrusted  to  his  pro- 
tection, inasmuch  as  the  man  who  had  intrusted  them  to  him 
had  been  destroyed  by  his  own  infatuation.  Then  turning  to 
the  tyrant's  assassins,  and  addressing  Theodotus  and  Sosis 
by  name,  he  said :  "  You  have  done  a  memorable  deed.  But, 
be  assured,  your  glory  is  only  begun;  it  is  not  yet  complete. 
The  greatest  peril  awaits  us  of  a  free  state  degenerating  into 
a  savage  community  unless  you  study  peace  and  unity." 

After  this  speech,  he  threw  down  at  their  feet  the  keys  of 
the  gates  and  of  the  royal  treasury.  That  day,  after  the  assem- 
bly had  broken  up,  the  people  in  their  joy  gathered,  with 
wives  and  children,  around  all  the  shrines  of  the  gods.  Next 
day  was  held  a  meeting  for  the  election  of  praetors.  Andrano- 
dorus was  one  of  the  first  appointed.  The  majority  of  the  rest 
had  been  among  the  assassins  <of  the  tyrant,  and  two,  Sopater 
and  Dinomenes,  were  elected  in  their  absence.  These  men, 
on  hearing  what  had  taken  place  at  Syracuse,  conveyed  to  that 
city  the  royal  treasure  at  Leontini,  and  handed  it  over  to 
financial  officials  appointed  for  the  purpose.  The  same  was 
done  with  the  treasures  in  the  island  and  the  Achradina;  and 


B.  C.  214]         THE   REVOLUTION  AT  SYRACUSE  435 

that  portion  of  the  wall  which  fenced  off  the  island  by  a  need- 
lessly strong  barrier  from  the  rest  of  the  city,  was,  by  general 
consent,  demolished.  All  their  other  proceedings,  too,  were 
in  accordance  with  this  bias  of  the  popular  mind  toward 
freedom. 

Hippocrates  and  Epicydes  when  the  news  of  the  tyrant's 
death  was  known,  which  Hippocrates  had  sought  to  conceal, 
by  actually  killing  the  bearer  of  the  tidings,  found  themselves 
deserted  by  the  soldiers,  and  returned  to  Syracuse,  their  safest 
course,  as  they  thought,  under  existing  circumstances.  That 
they  might  show  themselves  there  without  being  suspected 
of  seeking  an  oportunity  for  revolution,  they  first  approached 
the  praetors,  and  through  them  the  senate.  Hannibal,  they 
affirmed,  had  sent  them  to  Hieronymus  as  to  a  friend  and 
ally;  they  had  obeyed  the  rule  of  the  man  to  whom  their 
commander  wished  them  to  be  subject;  now  they  desired 
to  return  to  Hannibal.  As,  however,  the  journey  was  not 
safe  while  Roman  troops  were  wandering  over  the  whole  of 
Sicily,  they  begged  to  be  allowed  something  of  an  escort  to 
conduct  them  to  Locri  in  Italy.  The  Syracusans  would  thus, 
by  a  trifling  service,  lay  Hannibal  under  a  great  obligation. 

Their  request  was  readily  granted.  The  departure  of  the 
king's  generals,  needy  and  daring  men,  as  well  as  masters  of 
the  art  of  war,  was  what  was  desired.  But  Hippocrates  and 
Epicydes  did  not  carry  out  their  purpose  as  promptly  as  the 
urgency  of  the  business  suggested.  Meanwhile,  some  young 
men,  soldiers  themselves  and  intimate  associates  of  the  sol- 
diers, went  now  among  these,  now  among  the  deserters, 
most  of  whom  were  Roman  seamen,  and  then  again  even 
among  the  lowest  class  of  the  populace,  spreading  calumnies 
against  the  senate  and  the  aristocracy.  These,  they  said,  were 
secretly  plotting  and  contriving  to  get  Syracuse  under  the 
power  of  Rome  on  the  pretext  of  a  restored  alliance,  and  then 
the  faction  which  had  been  the  authors  of  the  new  treaty 
would  be  their  masters. 

A  daily  increasing  multitude,  ready  to  hear  and  believe 
all  this,  flocked  to  Syracuse,  and  gave  not  only  Epicydes  but 
also  Andranodorus  hopes  of  a  revolution.  The  latter  was 
at  last  quite  wearied  out  by  his  wife's  speeches.  Now,  she 
would  repeat,  now  was  the  time  to  seize  the  government,  while 
all  was  in  the  confusion  caused  by  a  new  and  ill-regulated 
liberty,  while  a  soldiery  that  had  fattened  on  the  royal  pay 
was  still  in  evidence,  and  leaders  sent  by  Hannibal  and  well 
known  to  the  troops  were  able  to  help  his  enterprise.  He 
communicated  his  plans  to  Themistus,  the  husband  of  Gelon's 


436  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  414 

daughter,  and  a  few  days  afterward  incautiously  disclosed  them 
to  one  Ariston,  a  tragic  actor,  to  whom  he  had  been  wont  to 
intrust  also  other  secrets.  Ariston  was  a  man  of  respectable 
family  and  position,  which  were  not  disgraced  by  his  profes- 
sion, as  nothing  of  that  kind  is  a  matter  of  shame  to  a  Greek.1 
So,  thinking  that  the  loyalty  he  owed  his  country  ought  to 
be  his  first  consideration,  he  laid  the  information  before  the 
praetors.  As  soon  as  they  had  ascertained  by  decisive  evidence 
that  it  was  no  mere  idle  tale,  they  consulted  the  older  senators, 
and  having,  with  their  sanction,  placed  a  guard  at  the  doors, 
they  slew  Andranodorus  and  Themistus  as  they  entered  the 
senate-house.  Confusion  followed  a  deed  to  all  appearance 
unusually  atrocious,  and  of  which  others  did  not  know  the 
motive,  but  at  last  silence  was  obtained,  and  the  informer  was 
conducted  into  the  chamber. 

The  man  told  the  whole  story  in  its  proper  order,  how  the 
beginning  of  the  conspiracy  dated  from  the  marriage  of 
Gelon's  daughter,  Harmonia,  to  Themistus;  how  some  African 
and  Spanish  auxiliaries  had  been  put  in  readiness  for  the  mas- 
sacre of  the  praetors  and  chief  citizens ;  how  it  had  been  openly 
announced  that  the  property  of  these  men  would  be  given  to 
their  murderers;  how  a  band  of  mercenaries  accustomed  to 
obey  the  biddings  of  Andranodorus  had  been  already  pro- 
vided for  a  second  seizure  of  the  island.  Lastly,  he  put  before 
their  eyes  every  detail,  how  each  conspirator  was  engaged, 
and  the  whole  conspiracy  itself,  with  its  array  of  armed  men. 
The  senate  then  felt  that  the  victims  had  deserved  their  death 
as  much  as  had  Hieronymus.  The  cries  of  a  bewildered  mob, 
all  uncertain  as  to  the  facts,  were  heard  at  the  doors,  but  as 
they  shouted  their  savage  threats  at  the  entrance  of  the  cham- 
ber, they  were  so  awe-struck  by  the  sight  of  the  bodies  of  the 
conspirators  that  they  silently  accompanied  the  calmer  portion 
of  the  populace  to  a  public  assembly.  Sopater  was  instructed 
by  the  senate  and  his  colleagues  to  address  them. 

He  began  with  the  past  life  of  the  conspirators,  just  as  if 
he  was  formally  accusing  them,  and  contended  that  of  all  the 
wicked  and  impious  deeds  done  since  the  death  of  Hiero, 
Andranodorus  and  Themistus  had  been  the  authors.  "  What," 
he  asked,  "  could  a  boy  like  Hieronymus,  barely  entering  upon 
youth,  have  done  of  his  own  accord?  Guardians  and  tutors 

1  This  was  only  true  of  the  Greeks  in  their  decadence.  Barring  such 
representations  as  partook  of  the  nature  of  religious  ceremonials,  the 
actors'  profession  was  held  in  low  esteem  by  the  whole  classical  world 
when  at  its  best,  and  in  Rome,  even  so  late  as  the  corrupt  days  of  Nero, 
no  act  of  that  insane  prince  created  greater  scandal  than  his  assumption 
of  the  role  of  a  public  singer. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  214]         MURDER   OF   THE   ROYAL   FAMILY  437 

had,  in  fact,  reigned  while  another  bore  the  odium,  and  there- 
fore they  ought  to  have  perished  either  before  Hieronymus, 
or  at  any  rate  along  with  him.  Yet  these  men,  long  ago  des- 
tined to  the  fate  that  they  deserved,  had  plotted  other  new 
crimes  after  the  tyrant's  death.  This  had  been  done  openly 
at  first  when  Andranodorus  shut  the  gates  of  the  island,  and 
entered  on  the  royal  inheritance,  claiming  as  a  master  what 
he  had  held  as  a  steward.  Afterward,  finding  himself  deserted 
by  the  occupants  of  the  island,  and  beleaguered  by  all  the  citi- 
zens as  soon  as  they  had  possession  of  the  Achradina,  he  had 
begun  secretly  and  treacherously  to  grasp  at  the  sovereignty 
which  he  had  in  vain  sought  openly  and  publicly;  and,  when 
he  who  had  plotted  against  freedom  was  chosen  praetor  among 
those  who  had  given  this  freedom  to  their  country,  even  fa- 
vour and  promotion  could  not  turn  him  from  his  purpose. 
The  truth  was  that  wives  of  royal  birth  had  inspired  them  with 
royal  arrogance,  for  one  had  married  Hiero's,  the  other 
Gelon's,  daughter." 

At  these  words  there  was  a  shout  from  every  part  of  the 
assembly  that  neither  of  those  women  ought  to  live;  that  no 
scion  of  a  family  of  tyrants  ought  to  survive.  Such  is  the  char- 
acter of  a  mob;  either  they  are  abjectly  submissive  or  inso- 
lently domineering;  the  liberty  which  lies  between  these  two 
extremes  they  can  neither  desire  nor  enjoy  in  moderation. 
Generally,  too,  persons  are  found  who  minister  indulgence 
to  their  angry  moods,  and  rouse  their  eager  and  intemperate 
passion  to  bloodshed  and  slaughter.  So  it  was  on  this  occa- 
sion. The  praetors  at  once  brought  forward  a  motion,  which 
was  accepted  almost  before  it  had  been  made,  to  have  the 
whole  royal  family  put  to  death.  Damarata  and  Harmonia, 
the  daughters  of  Hiero  and  Gelon,  and  the  wives  of  Andra- 
nodorus and  Themistus,  were  executed  by  men  sent  by  the 
praetors  for  the  purpose. 

There  was  a  daughter  of  Hiero,  Heraclea,  married  to  Zoip- 
pus,  who,  having  been  sent  by  Hieronymus  as  an  envoy  to 
King  Ptolemy,  had  chosen  voluntary  exile.  Knowing  before- 
hand that  she,  too,  would  receive  a  visit  from  the  executioners, 
she  fled,  with  her  two  maiden  daughters,  to  the  shrine  where 
stood  the  household  deities,  her  hair  dishevelled,  and  her  ap- 
pearance in  other  respects  most  pitiable.  To  this  appeal  she 
added  also  her  entreaties.  Invoking  the  memory  of  her  father, 
Hiero,  and  her  brother,  Gelon,  she  implored  them  not  to 
suffer  an  innocent  woman  to  be  destroyed  by  the  furious 
hatred  provoked  by  Hieronymus.  She  had  got  nothing  from 
his  reign  but  her  husband's  banishment;  while  he  lived,  her 


438  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.214 

position  had  not  been  that  of  her  sister's;  neither,  after  his 
death,  had  her  interests  been  the  same.  Need  she  say  that, 
had  the  designs  of  Andranodorus  succeeded,  her  sister  would 
have  reigned  with  him,  while  she  must  have  been  a  slave  with 
the  rest  ?  Should  Zoippus  be  told  that  Hieronymus  had  been 
slain  and  Syracuse  set  free,  who  could  doubt  that  he  would 
instantly  take  ship  and  return  to  his  country?  How  com- 
pletely are  men's  hopes  deceived!  His  country  was  indeed 
free,  but  in  it  his  wife  and  his  children  were  struggling  for  life, 
and  yet  how  had  they  opposed  freedom  and  law?  What  dan- 
ger was  there  to  any  one  from  herself,  a  solitary  woman,  all 
but  a  widow,  or  from  girls  living  in  orphanhood?  They  might 
say  that  though  they  feared  no  danger  from  her,  yet  they 
hated  the  royal  family.  Then  let  them  banish  her  from  Syra- 
cuse and  Sicily,  and  have  her  conveyed  to  Alexandria,  the 
wife  to  the  husband,  the  daughters  to  the  father. 

She  saw  that  their  ears  and  hearts  were  closed  to  her,  and 
that  a  sword  was  being  sharpened,  that  no  time  might  be  lost. 
Then  ceasing  to  entreat  for  herself,  she  was  urgent  in  supplica- 
tion that  they  would  at  least  spare  her  daughters,  as  even 
an  enemy  in  his  fury  did  not  harm  youth  like  theirs,  and  they 
should  not  in  their  vengeance  on  tyrants  imitate  themselves  the 
crimes  they  hated. 

While  she  was  speaking,  they  dragged  her  from  her  sanc- 
tuary and  slew  her;  then  they  fell  on  the  maidens,  who  were 
sprinkled  with  their  mother's  blood.  Grief  and  terror  com- 
bined had  robbed  them  of  reason,  and,  as  if  seized  with  frenzy, 
they  bounded  from  the  shrine  with  such  a  rush  that,  had 
escape  into  the  street  been  possible  for  them,  they  would 
have  filled  the  city  with  their  outcries.  Even  as  it  was,  within 
the  confined  space  of  the  house,  and  amid  a  number  of  armed 
men,  they  more  than  once  eluded  capture  without  injury  to 
their  persons,  and  though  the  hands  out  of  which  they  had  to 
struggle  were  many  and  strong,  they  tore  themselves  from 
their  grasp.  At  last,  exhausted  with  wounds,  while  the  whole 
place  reeked  with  their  blood,  they  fell  lifeless  to  the  ground. 
This  pitiable  end  was  made  yet  more  pitiable  by  the  circum- 
stance that  soon  afterward  there  came  a  message,  the  result 
of  a  sudden  change  to  a  more  merciful  mood,  forbidding  their 
execution.  After  pity  came  anger  that  they  had  been  so  hasty 
in  punishment  as  to  leave  no  room  for  repentance,  no  retreat 
from  their  vindictive  mood.  And  so  the  people  fumed,  and 
insisted  on  an  election  to  fill  the  places  of  Andranodorus  and 
Themistus,  both  of  whom  had  been  praetors,  an  election  which 
was  by  no  means  likely  to  be  satisfactory  to  the  praetors. 


B.  C.  214]  NEW  ELECTION   OF   PRAETORS  439 

On  the  day  fixed  for  the  election,  to  the  surprise  of  all,  one 
man  at  the  extremity  of  the  crowd  nominated  Epicydes,  and 
another  thereupon  nominated  Hippocrates.  The  voices  then 
became  more  frequent,  and  carried  with  them  the  unmistak- 
able assent  of  the  people.  There  was  disorder,  too,  in  the  as- 
sembly, in  which  were  throngs  of  soldiers,  as  well  as  of  citi- 
zens, and  with  these  were  largely  mingled  deserters,  who  were 
eager  for  a  wholesale  revolution.  At  first  the  praetors  pre- 
tended ignorance,  and  were  bent  on  delaying  matters,  but  at 
last,  yielding  to  the  unanimous  feeling,  and  dreading  a  riot, 
they  declared  the  men  elected. 

On  being  appointed  they  did  not  at  once  disclose  their  in- 
tentions. Yet  they  took  it  ill  that  envoys  had  gone  to  Appius 
Claudius  to  arrange  a  ten  days'  truce,  and  that,  this  having 
been  granted,  others  had  been  sent  to  negotiate  a  renewal  of 
the  ancient  treaty.  The  Romans  had  at  the  time  a  fleet  of  a 
hundred  vessels  at  Murgantia,  and  were  awaiting  the  result  of 
the  disturbances  at  Syracuse  arising  out  of  the  murder  of  the 
tyrants,  and  the  effect  on  the  people  of  their  new  and  un- 
wonted freedom.  Meanwhile  the  Syracusan  envoys  had  been 
sent  by  Appius  to  Marcellus,  who  was  on  his  way  to  Sicily, 
and  Marcellus,  having  heard  the  terms  of  peace,  and  thinking 
that  matters  could  be  arranged,  himself  also  despatched  an 
embassy  to  Syracuse,  to  discuss  publicly  with  the  praetors  the 
renewal  of  the  treaty.  And  now  there  was  by  no  means  the 
same  quiet  and  tranquility  in  the  city.  As  soon  as  news  ar- 
rived of  a  Carthaginian  fleet  being  near  Pachynus,1  Hippoc- 
rates and  Epicydes,  throwing  off  all  fear,  pressed  the  accusa- 
tion, now  before  the  mercenary  troops,  now  before  the  desert- 
ers, that  Syracuse  was  being  betrayed  to  the  Romans.  And 
when  Appius  began  to  have  his  fleet  stationed  at  the  mouth 
of  the  harbour,  thinking  to  encourage  the  adherence  of  the 
other  party,  this  gave  a  decisive  assurance  to  what  were  ap- 
parently idle  charges.  At  first,  too,  there  was  a  tumultu- 
ous rus'h  of  the  people  to  the  shore  to  repel  any  attempt  at 
landing. 

Amid  all  this  confusion  it  was  decided  to  summon  the 
citizens  to  an  assembly.  Some  were  for  one  course,  others 
for  another,  and  they  were  on  the  verge  of  a  riot,  when  Apol- 
lonides,  one  of  their  chief  men,  addressed  them  in  a  speech 
which,  considering  the  occasion,  was  salutary.  Never,  he  said, 
had  any  state  been  nearer  to  ruin  or  to  a  prospect  of  safety. 
Were  all  unanimously  to  lean  either  to  Rome  or  to  Carthage, 
no  state  would  be  in  a  more  fortunate  or  happy  condition. 
1  The  southernmost  point  of  Sicily. — D.  O. 


446  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  4i4 

But,  should  one  party  drag  them  one  way,  another  'another, 
then  war  between  the  Carthaginians  and  Romans  would  not 
be  more  frightful  than  that  between  the  Syracusans  them- 
selves; for  within  the  same  walls  each  faction  would  have 
its  troops,  its  arms,  and  its  officers.  There  ought,  therefore, 
to  be  a  supreme  effort  to  secure  unanimity;  the  question  which 
alliance  was  the  more  advantageous,  was  far  less  important, 
and  of  much  lighter  moment.  Nevertheless,  in  choosing 
allies,  it  would  be  better  to  follow  the  authority  of  Hiero 
than  that  of  Hieronymus,  and  prefer  a  friendship  tried  for 
fifty  years  with  happy  results  to  one  which  was  now  strange 
to  them,  and  which  in  the  past  had  been  untrustworthy. 
One  thing,  too,  had  an  important  bearing  on  their  delibera- 
tions. They  could  refuse  peace  to  the  Carthaginians  without 
having,  at  least  in  the  immediate  present,  to  be  at  war  with 
them.  With  the  Romans  they  must  at  once  be  either  at  peace 
or  war. 

The  speech  had  all  the  more  weight  for  seeming  to  show 
little  personal  ambition  or  party  spirit.  To  the  praetors  and 
certain  select  senators  were  joined  also  some  military  advisers, 
and  the  officers  and  commanders  of  the  auxiliaries  were  called 
into  council.  The  matter  was  repeatedly  discussed  in  fierce 
debates,  and  at  last,  as  there  appeared  to  be  no  possible  means 
of  waging  war  with  Rome,  it  was  decided  to  conclude  a  peace 
and  to  send  an  embassy  along  with  the  Roman  envoys  to  se- 
cure its  ratification. 

Not  very  many  days  had  elapsed  when  envoys  came  from 
Leontini,  imploring  protection  for  their  territory.  This  em- 
bassy seemed  to  the  Syracusans  a  particularly  opportune 
means  of  relieving  themselves  of  a  disorderly  and  tumultuous 
mob,  and  of  getting  rid  of  its  leaders.  Hippocrates  received 
orders  to  march  thither  with  the  deserters,  and  these  were 
followed  by  many  of  the  mercenaries,  who  made  up  the  num- 
ber to  four  thousand.  It  was  an  expedition  welcome  alike  to 
the  senders  and  to  the  sent.  The  one  hailed  it  as  an  opportu- 
nity for  those  revolutionary  schemes  for  which  they  had  long 
been  craving;  the  others  rejoiced  at  the  thought  that  they  had 
cleared  their  city  of  its  dregs.  But  they  relieved  it  only  for  a 
moment,  to  relapse,  like  a  diseased  body,  into  a  more  fatal 
malady.  Hippocrates  began  ravaging  in  stealthy  raids  the 
borders  of  the  Roman  province ;  afterward,  when  troops  were 
despatched  by  Appius  to  defend  the  lands  of  the  allies,  he 
made  a  most  murderous  onslaught  with  all  his  forces  on  a 
picket  posted  to  oppose  him.  Marcellus,  on  receiving  the 
news,  instantly  sent  envoys  to  Syracuse  to  say  that  the  guar- 


B.  C.  214]  MARCELLUS   TAKES   LEONTINI  441 

antees  of  peace  had  been  destroyed,  and  that  an  occasion  of 
war  would  never  be  wanting,  unless  Hippocrates  and  Epicydes 
were  banished,  not  only  from  Syracuse,  but  from  the  whole 
of  Sicily. 

Epicydes,  unwilling  either  to  be  present  where  he  might  be 
arraigned  for  the  misdeeds  of  an  absent  brother,  or  to  fail  to 
do  his  part  to  excite  a  war,  went  himself  to  Leontini,  and,  as 
he  saw  that  the  citizens  were  sufficiently  exasperated  against 
the  Roman  people,  began  to  try  to  alienate  them  likewise 
from  the  Syracusans.  He  told  them  that  the  Syracusans  had 
made  peace  with  the  Romans  only  on  the  condition  that  all 
states  which  had  been  under  the  kings  were  also  to  be  under 
Syracusan  subjection.  They  were  now  not  satisfied  with  free- 
dom, unless  they  could  rule  in  kingly  fashion  and  domineer. 
They  ought  to  have  word  sent  back  to  them  that  the  Leontines 
also  thought  it  right  to  be  free.  For  it  was  in  the  streets  of 
their  city  that  the  tyrant  had  fallen ;  it  was  there  that  the  cry 
of  freedom  had  first  been  raised,  and  it  was  to  Syracuse  that 
men  flocked  after  the  desertion  of  the  royal  leaders.1  That 
part  of  the  treaty,  therefore,  ought  to  be  struck  out,  or  the 
treaty  ought  not  to  be  accepted  with  such  a  condition. 

The  mass  of  the  citizens  were  easily  convinced.  When 
the  Syracusan  envoys  complained  of  the  slaughter  of  the 
Roman  detachment,  and  insisted  on  the  departure  of  Hip- 
pocrates and  Epicydes  to  Locri,  or  wherever  else  they  pleased, 
provided  only  they  quitted  Sicily,  they  received  a  defiant  an- 
swer. They  (the  Leontines)  had  not  authorized  the  Syracusans 
to  make  peace  with  the  Romans  on  their  behalf,  and  they  were 
not  bound  by  other  peoples'  treaties.  The  Syracusans  re- 
ported this  answer  to  the  Romans,  and  denied  that  the  Leon- 
tines  were  under  their  control.  Consequently,  they  added, 
the  Romans  might  go  to  war  with  them  without  breaking  the 
treaty  between  Rome  and  themselves,  nor  would  they  fail  to 
do  their  part  in  that  war,  on  condition,  however,  that,  when 
subdued,  the  Leontines  were  again  to  be  under  Syracusan  sub- 
jection, as  had  been  stipulated  in  the  peace. 

Marcellus  marched  for  Leontini  with  his  entire  army,  and 
summoned  Appius  also  to  attack  in  another  quarter.  He 
found  such  ardour  in  his  troops,  from  their  rage  at  the  slaugh- 
ter of  the  detachment  during  negotiations  for  peace,  that  at 
the  very  first  assault  the  city  was  stormed.  Hippocrates  and 
Epicydes,  as  soon  as  they  saw  the  walls  taken  and  the  gates 
broken  open,  betook  themselves  with  a  few  followers  to  the 

1  The  translation  is  doubtful  here,  and  it  is  more  than  possible  that  the 
text  is  defective  or  corrupt. — D.  O, 


442  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [u.  C.  214 

citadel.  Thence  they  fled  secretly  by  night  to  Herbessus.1 
The  Syracusans  had  started  from  home  with  eight  thousand 
armed  men,  and  were  met  at  the  river  Myla  by  news  of  the 
capture  of  the  city.  As  for  the  details,  falsehood  was  mingled 
with  truth.  There  had  been,  the  messenger  said,  an  indis- 
criminate slaughter  of  soldiers  and  of  townsfolk,  and  he  did 
not  believe  that  a  single  adult  survived;  the  city  had  been 
pillaged,  and  the  property  of  the  rich  given  away. 

At  these  dreadful  tidings  the  army  halted.  Amid  universal 
excitement  the  officers  (these  were  Sosis  and  Dinomenes)  con- 
sulted what  they  were  to  do.  A  reasonable  ground  for  panic 
was  lent  to  the  falsehood  by  the  fact  that  deserters  to  the  num- 
ber of  two  thousand  had  been  scourged  and  slain  by  the  axe  of 
the  executioner.  As  it  was,  not  a  Leontine  citizen,  not  a  sol- 
dier, had  been  harmed  after  the  city's  capture.  All  their  prop- 
erty had  been  restored  to  them,  except  what  had  perished  in 
the  first  confusion  of  the  storming.  The  Syracusans  could  not 
be  induced  to  go  to  Leontini,  complaining  that  their  fellow- 
soldiers  had  been  betrayed  to  be  slaughtered,  or  even  to  await 
on  the  spot  more  certain  intelligence.  When  the  praetors  saw 
an  inclination  to  mutiny,  but  knew  that  the  stir  would  not  last 
long  if  their  leaders  in  folly  were  removed,  they  marched  the 
army  to  Megara.2  They  themselves  with  a  few  cavalry  pushed 
on  for  Herbessus  in  the  hope  of  securing  the  place  by  sur- 
render amid  a  general  panic.  Finding  their  attempt  frustrated, 
and  thinking  they  must  use  force,  they  moved  their  camp  next 
day  from  Megara,  purposing  to  attack  Herbessus  with  their 
whole  army.  Hippocrates  and  Epicydes  thought  that  their 
only  resource,  though  it  was  not  at  first  sight  a  safe  one,  was  to 
give  themselves  up  to  the  soldiers,  who  for  the  most  part  knew 
them  well  and  who  were  now  infuriated  by  the  rumour  of  their 
comrades'  slaughter.  And  so  they  went  out  to  meet  the  army. 
It  happened  that  in  the  van  were  the  standards  of  six  hundred 
Cretans  who  had  served  under  them  in  the  time  of  Hierony- 
mus,  and  were  under  an  obligation  to  Hannibal  by  whom  they 
had  been  taken  prisoners  at  Trasumennus  among  the  Roman 
auxiliaries  and  then  released.  Hippocrates  and  Epicydes  rec- 
ognising them  by  their  standards  and  the  appearance  of  their 
arms,  held  out  olive-branches  with  other  suppliant  emblems, 
imploring  them  to  receive  and  protect  them,  and  not  deliver 

1  This  Herbessus  (or  Erbesus)  was  about  twenty-five  miles  west  of 
Syracuse.  There  was  another  town  of  the  same  name  near  Agrigen- 
tum. — D.  O. 

3  A  seaport  ten  miles  north  of  Syracuse  and  near  the  modern  Agosta- 
— D.  O. 


B.C.  214]  REVOLT  OF  THE   ARMY  443 

them  to  the  Syracusans  by  whom  they  would  themselves  be 
soon  surrendered  to  the  Romans  to  be  slaughtered. 

They  shouted  in  reply :  "  Be  of  good  heart ;  we  will  under- 
go any  fate  with  you !  "  During  the  interview  the  standards 
were  halted,  and  the  march  of  the  army  arrested,  but  the  cause 
of  the  delay  had  not  yet  reached  the  commanding  officer. 
When  the  report  spread  that  Hippocrates  and  Epicydes  were 
there,  and  a  cry  rose  from  the  whole  army  in  hearty  approval 
of  their  presence,  the  praetors  instantly  rode  to  the  van  at  full 
gallop.  "What  is  this  behaviour?"  they  asked  vehemently; 
"  what  means  this  license  of  the  Cretans  in  holding  conferences 
with  the  enemy,  and  letting  them  mingle  in  their  ranks  without 
any  authority  from  the  praetors  ?  "  They  ordered  Hippocrates 
to  be  arrested  and  put  in  irons.  The  word  was  followed  in- 
stantly by  clamour  from  the  Cretans,  which  was  soon  taken 
up  by  other  soldiers,  so  that  it  was  evident  that  the  praetors, 
if  they  persisted,  had  cause  for  alarm.  Perplexed  and  doubtful 
as  to  their  position,  they  ordered  a  retreat  to  Megara,  whence 
they  had  come,  and  sent  intelligence  to  Syracuse  about  their 
present  situation.  Hippocrates,  seeing  that  men's  minds  were 
ready  for  any  suspicion,  employed  a  new  artifice.  He  sent  out 
some  Cretans  to  lurk  in  ambush  about  the  roads,  and  then  read 
out  a  letter  which  he  pretended  to  be  an  intercepted  communi- 
cation, but  which  he  had  composed  himself.  It  was  addressed, 
"  The  praetors  to  the  consul  Marcellus."  After  the  usual  greet- 
ing, it  went  on  to  say :  "  You  have  acted  rightly  and  properly  in 
not  sparing  any  one  at  Leontini.  But  all  the  mercenary  sol- 
diers are  in  the  same  case,  and  Syracuse  will  never  be  at  peace 
as  long  as  there  are  any  foreign  auxiliaries  either  in  the  city 
or  in  their  army.  Do  your  best,  then,  to  get  into  your  power 
those  who,  with  their  praetors,  are  in  camp  at  Megara,  and 
give  final  freedom  to  Syracuse  by  their  execution." 

When  this  letter  had  been  read  out,  there  was  everywhere 
a  rush  to  arms,  with  such  shouting  that  the  praetors  rode  off 
panic-stricken  amid  the  disorder  to  Syracuse.  Even  their 
flight  did  not  stop  the  mutiny,  and  violent  attacks  were  made 
on  the  Syracusan  soldiers.  None  of  them  would  have  been 
spared,  had  not  Epicydes  and  Hippocrates  resisted  the  fury  of 
the  mob.  This  they  did,  not  out  of  compassion,  or  with  any 
humane  purpose,  but  that  they  might  not  cut  off  from  them- 
selves all  hope  of  return.  In  the  soldiers  themselves  they 
would  thus  have  loyal  adherents  and  hostages  as  well,  while 
they  would  secure  the  attachment  of  their  kinsfolk  and  friends 
in  the  first  instance  by  this  service,  and  afterward  by  keeping 
them  as  a  pledge.  Knowing,  as  they  did,  by  experience,  how 


444  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  214 

susceptible  are  the  common  people  to  any  foolish  and  ground- 
less excitement,  they  pitched  on  one  of  the  soldiers  who  had 
been  besieged  in  Leontini,  and  engaged  him  to  carry  intelli- 
gence to  Syracuse  corresponding  with  what  had  been  falsely 
reported  at  Myla.  By  declaring  that  he  vouched  for  its  truth, 
and  by  relating  things  which  were  doubtful,  as  if  he  had  wit- 
nessed them,  he  was  to  rouse  the  fury  of  the  citizens. 

The  man  not  only  won  the  belief  of  the  populace,  but  he 
also  profoundly  impressed  the  senate,  into  whose  chamber  he 
was  introduced.  Men  by  no  means  wanting  in  sense  openly 
avowed  that  it  was  very  fortunate  that  the  rapacity  and  cruelty 
of  the  Romans  had  been  unmasked  at  Leontini,  and  that,  had 
they  entered  Syracuse,  they  would  have  done  the  same  or  even 
more  hideous  acts,  inasmuch  as  their  rapacity  would  have 
found  there  a  richer  prize.  All  therefore  agreed  that  they 
ought  to  close  the  gates  and  guard  the  city,  but  all  gave  not 
the  same  directions  to  their  fears  and  hates.  To  the  military 
class  and  the  majority  of  the  population  the  name  of  Rome 
was  odious,  while  the  praetors  and  a  few  of  the  aristocracy, 
though  the  false  intelligence  had  excited  them,  were  for  pro- 
viding against  a  nearer  and  a  more  pressing  danger.  Already 
Hippocrates  and  Epicydes  were  at  the  Hexapylon,  and  there 
were  incessant  conversations  among  the  relatives  of  the  native 
Syracusan  soldiers  in  favour  of  opening  the  gates  and  letting 
their  common  country  be  defended  against  a  Roman  attack. 

One  of  the  gates  of  the  Hexapylon  had  now  been  opened, 
and  the  soldiers  were  beginning  to  be  admitted  when  the  prae- 
tors came  up.  First  they  tried  to  check  them  by  commands 
and  threats,  then  by  their  influence,  and  at  last,  finding  it  all  in 
vain,  regardless  of  their  dignity  they  had  recourse  to  entreaties, 
and  begged  them  not  to  betray  their  country  to  men  who  but 
lately  were  the  ministers  of  a  tyrant  and  were  now  the  cor- 
rupters  of  the  army.  But  the  ears  of  the  infuriated  mob  were 
deaf  to  everything,  and  the  efforts  from  within  to  break  open 
the  gates  were  as  violent  as  those  from  without,  till  all  had 
been  forced  and  the  army  was  admitted  into  every  part  of  the 
Hexapylon. 

The  praetors  fled  with  the  youth  of  the  citizens  to  the 
Achradina.  Meanwhile  the  enemy's  army  was  swollen  by  the 
mercenary  soldiers,  the  deserters,  and  all  the  late  king's  troops 
which  were  at  Syracuse.  And  consequently  the  Achradina  was 
taken  at  the  first  assault,  and  all  the  praetors  but  those  who 
escaped  in  the  confusion  were  put  to  death.  Night  terminated 
the  massacres.  Next  day  the  slaves  were  called  together  to 
receive  the  cap  of  freedom,  and  all  prisoners  were  discharged. 


B.  c.  214]  ROMANS   BESIEGE   SYRACUSE 


445 


Then  this  motley  assemblage  unanimously  made  Hippocrates 
and  Epicydes  praetors,  and  Syracuse  after  a  brief  gleam  of 
liberty  fell  back  into  its  old  servitude. 

The  Romans  on  receiving  this  news  at  once  moved  their 
camp  from  Leontini  to  Syracuse.  Some  envoys,  as  it  hap- 
pened, sent  by  Appius,  had  passed  through  the  harbour  in  a 
five-banked  vessel.  A  four-banked  vessel  which  had  been 
previously  despatched  was  seized  as  soon  as  it  entered  the  har- 
bour's mouth,  and  the  envoys  themselves  escaped  with  diffi- 
culty. And  now  even  the  laws  of  war  as  well  as  of  peace  were 
abandoned,  when  the  Roman  army  encamped  at  the  Olym- 
pium,  which  is  a  temple  of  Jupiter  situated  a  mile  and  a  half 
from  the  city.  From  this  place  again  it  was  decided  to  send 
an  embassy,  but  the  embassy  was  prevented  from  entering 
the  city  by  Hippocrates  and  Epicydes,  who  came  out  to  meet 
it  with  their  partisans. 

The  Roman  spokesman  said  that  they  wished  to  bring  relief 
and  aid,  not  war,  to  the  people  of  Syracuse,  alike  to  those  who 
had  fled  to  them  for  refuge  out  of  the  midst  of  massacre,  and  to 
those  who  under  an  overwhelming  terror  were  enduring  a 
slavery  more  horrible  than  exile  and  even  than  death  itself. 
Nor  would  they  allow  the  atrocious  slaughter  of  their  allies  to 
go  unavenged.  If,  therefore,  a  safe  return  to  their  own  coun- 
try was  open  for  the  refugees,  if  the  authors  of  the  massacre 
were  surrendered,  and  freedom  and  law  restored  to  Syracuse, 
war  was  wholly  unnecessary.  If,  however,  all  this  was  refused, 
whoever  might  be  the  obstacle,  on  him  the  Romans  would 
make  war  to  the  uttermost. 

Epicydes  replied :  "  If  you  had  had  any  message  for  us,  we 
would  have  given  you  an  answer.  The  refugees  can  return 
as  soon  as  the  government  of  Syracuse  shall  be  in  the  hands 
of  those  to  whom  you  have  come.  Should  the  Romans  be  the 
aggressors,  you  will  soon  learn  by  actual  facts  that  it  is  by  no 
means  the  same  thing  to  besiege  Syracuse  as  to  besiege  Leon- 
tini." He  then  left  the  envoys  and  closed  the  gates. 

From  that  moment  the  siege  of  Syracuse  began  both  by 
land  and  sea,  landward  on  the  side  of  the  Hexapylon,  sea- 
ward on  that  of  the  Achradina,  the  walls  of  which  are  washed 
by  the  waves.  The  Romans  having  taken  Leontini  in  the 
panic  of  a  first  assault,  felt  confident  that  at  some  point  they 
would  force  an  entrance  into  a  wide  and  scattered  city,  and  so 
they  brought  up  all  the  machinery  employed  in  the  attack  of 
fortified  places. 

An  attempt  made  with  such  impetuous  energy  must  have 
secured  success  but  for  the  presence  at  this  crisis  of  one  man 


446  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  214 

at  Syracuse.  This  was  Archimedes,  an  unrivalled  observer  of 
the  heavens  and  the  stars,  and  yet  more  wonderful  as  an  in- 
ventor and  contriver  of  military  works  and  engines  by  which 
he  could  with  the  utmost  ease  baffle  the  enemy's  most  labori- 
ous efforts.  The  wall  which  was  drawn  along  hills  of  various 
heights,  lofty  for  the  most  part  and  difficult  of  approach, 
though  there  was  also  some  lower  ground  accessible  from  the 
level  of  the  valleys,  he  furnished  with  engines  of  every  descrip- 
tion, suited  to  the  different  localities.  Marcellus  assailed  the 
fortifications  of  the  Achradina,  which,  as  has  been  before  said, 
are  washed  by  the  sea,  with  sixty  of  his  five-banked  ships, 
while  from  his  other  ships  archers,  slingers,  and  light  infan- 
try also,  whose  special  missile  is  not  readily  launched  by  an 
inexperienced  hand,1  suffered  scarcely  a  man  to  stand  un- 
wounded  on  the  ramparts.  As  they  wanted  room  to  discharge 
their  missiles,  they  kept  the  vessels  at  a  distance  from  the 
walls.  The  five-banked  ships  were  lashed  together,  two  and 
two,  with  their  sides  in  close  contact,  oars  on  the  inner  side 
having  been  removed,  and  then  they  were  propelled  by  the 
outer  bank  of  oars,  like  one  vessel,  carrying  on  board  towers 
of  several  stories  with  other  contrivances  for  breaking  down 
the  fortifications. 

To  oppose  this  naval  attacking  force  Archimedes  set  en- 
gines of  all  sizes  on  the  ramparts.  Against  the  more  distant 
vessels  he  discharged  stones  of  prodigious  weight ;  the  nearer, 
he  assailed  with  missiles,  lighter  indeed,  but  all  the  more  inces- 
sant ;  last,  he  opened  numerous  apertures,  a  cubit  in  diameter, 
in  the  wall  from  the  top  to  the  bottom,  that  his  men  might 
shower  their  darts  on  the  enemy,  themselves  unwounded. 
From  a  concealed  position,  through  these  apertures,  they 
galled  the  enemy,  some  with  arrows,  others  with  small  so- 
called  "  scorpions."  2  Some  vessels  came  close  in,  so  as  to  be 
too  near  for  the  range  of  the  engines ;  on  the  bows  of  these 
vessels  was  dropped  from  a  crane  projecting  over  the  ramparts 
an  iron  grappling-hook  fastened  to  a  strong  chain,  which  be- 
ing swiftly  lowered  to  the  ground  by  a  ponderous  leaden 
weight,  raised  the  prow  high  in  air,  and  set  the  vessel  on  its 
stern.  The  hook  was  then  suddenly  let  go,  and  the  vessel,  to 
the  great  consternation  of  the  sailors,  was  dashed,  as  if  it  had 
fallen  from  the  walls,  with  such  violence  on  the  waves,  that 
even  if  it  fell  straight,  it  took  in  a  quantity  of  water.  Thus  the 

1  This  passage  has  been  differently  rendered.  I  am  inclined,  however, 
to  construe  it  simply,  and  as  referring  merely  to  the  light  javelins,  the 
effective  darting  of  which  calls  for  peculiar  skill  and  strength. — D.  O. 

*  Probably  a  kind  of  cross-bow. — D.  O. 


B.  c.  214]  HIMILCO  LANDS  IN  SICILY 


447 


naval  attack  was  foiled,  and  the  besiegers  turned  all  their 
efforts  to  an  assault  in  full  force  by  land. 

Here,  too,  however,  every  point  had  been  furnished  with 
the  same  complete  outfit  of  engines,  to  which  Hiero  had 
for  many  years  devoted  time  and  money,  and  Archimedes  his 
singular  skill.  The  nature  of  the  ground  too  helped  the  de- 
fence. The  rock  on  which  the  foundations  of  the  wall  were 
laid  is  for  the  most  part  so  steep  that  not  only  the  missiles  dis- 
charged from  the  engines,  but  everything  that  rolled  down  by 
its  own  weight,  fell  with  fatal  effect  on  the  enemy.  The  same 
circumstance  rendered  the  ascent  hard  to  climb  and  the  foot- 
ing precarious.  Finding  therefore  that  every  attempt  cov- 
ered them  with  ridicule,  the  besiegers  held  a  council,  in  which 
it  was  decided  to  abandon  all  further  assaults,  and  to  cut  off  by 
a  simple  blockade  the  enemy's  supplies  by  sea  and  land. 

Marcellus  meanwhile  marched  with  about  a  third  of  his 
army  to  recover  the  cities  which  had  revolted  to  Carthage  dur- 
ing the  late  commotions.  Helorus  and  Herbessus  he  recov- 
ered by  voluntary  surrender.  Megara,  which  he  stormed,  he 
sacked  and  destroyed  as  a  terror  to  all  other  Sicilians,  espe- 
cially the  Syracusans.  About  the  same  time  Himilco,  who  had 
long  been  with  his  fleet  off  the  promontory  of  Pachynus,  landed 
at  Heraclea1  (also  called  Minoa),  with  twenty-five  thousand  in- 
fantry, three  thousand  cavalry,  and  twelve  elephants ;  a  much 
larger  force  than  he  had  previously  had  with  his  fleet  off 
Pachynus.  The  fact  was  that  as  soon  as  Hippocrates  had 
seized  Syracuse,  Himilco  went  to  Carthage,  and  there,  being 
himself  on  the  spot  an  influential  adviser,  and  also  backed 
up  by  envoys  from  Hippocrates  and  by  a  letter  from  Hannibal, 
in  which  it  was  said  that  the  time  had  arrived  for  the  recovery 
of  Sicily  with  the  highest  credit,  he  had  easily  prevailed  on 
the  people  to  send  across  to  Sicily  as  large  a  force  as  they  could 
of  infantry  and  cavalry.  On  arriving  he  recovered  Heraclea 
and  a  few  days  afterward  Agrigentum,2  thus  kindling  in  other 
states  which  sided  with  Carthage  such  hopes  of  expelling  the 
Romans  from  Sicily  that  at  last  even  the  besieged  Syracusans 
raised  their  spirits.  Believing  that  a  portion  of  their  forces 
sufficed  for  their  city's  safety,  they  divided  among  them  the 
operations  of  war,  Epicydes  being  intrusted  with  the  direction 
of  the  defence,  while  Hippocrates  was  to  join  Himilco  and 
carry  on  the  contest  with  the  Roman  consul. 

With  ten  thousand  infantry  and  five  hundred  cavalry  Hip- 

1  Near  the  river  Halycus,  one  of  the  chief  Carthaginian  naval  sta- 
tions.— D.  O. 

*  Now  Girgenti. — D.  O. 


448  LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  214 

pocrates  marched  out  of  the  city  by  night  at  a  point  left  un- 
guarded, and  began  to  form  a  camp  near  the  town  of  Acrillae. 
While  they  were  intrenching  it,  Marcellus  came  up  on  his  way 
back  from  Agrigentum,  which  he  had  found  occupied,  though 
he  had  vainly  put  forth  his  utmost  speed  to  get  there  before 
the  enemy.  There  was  nothing  which  he  less  expected  than 
to  be  met  at  that  time  and  place  by  a  Syracusan  army.  Still, 
being  afraid  of  Himilco  and  the  Carthaginians,  for  whom,  with 
the  force  he  then  had,  he  was  by  no  means  a  match,  he  con- 
tinued to  advance  with  all  possible  vigilance,  and  with  his 
troops  prepared  for  any  emergency. 

The  precautions  which  he  had  so  carefully  taken  against 
the  Carthaginians  served  him,  as  it  happened,  against  the  Sicil- 
ians. He  came  on  them,  as  they  were  intrenching  their  camp, 
scattered,  and  in  disorder,  and  for  the  most  part  unarmed,  and 
cut  off  their  entire  infantry;  their  cavalry,  after  a  slight  skir- 
mish, fled  with  Hippocrates  to  Acrae.1 

Having  by  this  battle  checked  the  disposition  of  the  Sicil- 
ians to  revolt  from  Rome,  Marcellus  marched  back  to  Syra- 
cuse. A  few  days  afterward  Himilco,  who  had  now  been 
joined  by  Hippocrates,  encamped  on  the  river  Anapus 2  at 
about  eight  miles  distance. 

About  the  same  time  fifty-five  Carthaginian  war-ships, 
under  Bomilcar  as  admiral,  sailed  into  the  great  harbour  of 
Syracuse,  and  a  Roman  fleet  too  of  thirty  five-banked  vessels 
disembarked  the  first  legion  at  Panormus.3  It  might  have 
seemed  that  the  war  had  been  altogether  diverted  from  Italy, 
so  intent  was  each  nation  on  Sicily.  The  Roman  legion  which 
had  been  landed  at  Panormus  and  was  on  its  way  to  Syracuse, 
Himilco  counted  on  as  his  certain  prey,  but  he  was  deceived  as 
to  its  route.  The  Carthaginian  took  his  march  inland,  while 
the  legion,  accompanied  by  the  fleet,  proceeded  along  the 
coast  and  joined  Appius  Claudius,  who  had  advanced  to  meet  it 
at  Pachynus  with  a  part  of  his  army. 

Not  a  moment  longer  did  the  Carthaginians  remain  at 
Syracuse.  Bomilcar  had  but  little  confidence  in  his  fleet,  as 
the  Romans  had  fully  twice  as  many  ships,  and  he  saw, 
too,  that  useless  delay  would  do  nothing  but  aggravate  the 
scarcity  that  distressed  his  allies.  He  therefore  sailed  out  to 
sea  and  crossed  to  Africa.  Himilco  too  pursued  Marcellus  to 
Syracuse  without  result,  hoping  for  an  opportunity  of  en- 
gaging him  before  he  was  joined  by  a  larger  army.  But  find- 
ing none,  and  seeing  his  enemy  safe  at  Syracuse  within  forti- 

1  Now  Palazzolo. — D.  O.  *  Now  the  Anapo. — D.  O. 

*  Now  Palermo.— D.  O. 


B.  C.  214]    HIMILCO  WITHDRAWS  FROM  SYRACUSE          449 

fied  lines  and  in  great  strength,  he  moved  away  his  camp,  not 
wishing  to  waste  his  time  in  idly  watching  him  and  looking  on 
at  the  blockade  of  his  allies.  Wherever  he  might  be  invited  by 
a  prospect  of  revolt  from  Rome,  there  he  meant  to  bring  up 
his  army  and  give  courage  by  his  presence  to  those  who  fa- 
voured his  cause.  First  he  recovered  Murgantia,  the  citizens 
of  which  betrayed  the  Roman  garrison.  Vast  stores  of  grain 
and  supplies  of  all  kinds  had  there  been  collected  for  the 
Romans. 

This  revolt  at  once  encouraged  the  hopes  of  other  states. 
Roman  garrisons  were  either  driven  from  their  strongholds  or 
were  treacherously  overpowered.  Enna,1  which  stood  on  a 
height  of  which  every  side  was  a  precipice,  was  not  only  im- 
pregnable from  its  position,  but  it  had  also  in  its  citadel  a  strong 
garrison  commanded  by  a  man  not  likely  to  fall  a  victim  to  any 
plot.  Lucius  Pinarius  was  a  fearless  soldier,  and  one  who  de- 
pended more  on  guarding  himself  against  the  possibility  of  be- 
ing deceived  than  on  the  good  faith  of  the  Sicilians.  And  now 
his  vigilance  in  taking  every  imaginable  precaution  had  been 
quickened  by  hearing  so  continually  of  the  betrayals  and 
revolts  of  cities  and  of  slaughtered  garrisons.  So,  night  and 
day  alike,  every  point  was  watched  and  defended  by  guards 
and  sentries,  and  not  a  soldier  laid  aside  his  arms  or  quitted 
his  post. 

Of  all  this  the  chief  citizens  of  Enna,  who  had  already  been 
treating  with  Himilco  for  the  surrender  of  the  garrison,  were 
well  aware,  and  seeing  that  the  Romans  were  not  open  to  any 
treacherous  surprise,  they  decided  that  they  must  go  to  work 
openly.  The  city  and  citadel,  they  said,  ought  to  be  in  their 
own  control,  if  they  had  given  themselves  up  to  the  Romans 
to  enjoy  freedom  as  allies,  and  not  to  be  in  their  keeping  as 
slaves.  "  We  think  it  fair,"  said  they,  "  that  the  keys  of  the 
city  gates  should  be  returned  to  us.  With  good  allies,  their 
own  loyalty  is  the  strongest  bond.  It  is  only  if  of  our  own 
free  will  and  without  compulsion  we  continue  in  their  friend- 
ship, that  the  people  and  senate  of  Rome  can  be  grateful 
to  us." 

To  this  the  Roman  officer  replied  that  he  had  been  charged 
with  the  city's  defence  by  his  commander-in-chief ;  that  by  him 
he  had  been  intrusted  with  the  keys  of  the  city  gates  and  with 
the  custody  of  the  citadel,  and  that  he  did  not  hold  his  trust  by 
his  own  will  or  that  of  the  citizens  of  Enna,  but  from  him  who 
had  committed  it  to  him.  To  quit  one's  post  was  with  the 
Romans  a  capital  offence,  a  law  to  which  fathers  had  given  a 

1  Now  Castro  Giovanni. — D.  O. 
29 


450  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  214 

sanction  by  the  execution  even  of  their  own  children.  The 
consul  Marcellus  was  not  far  off ;  they  should  send  envoys  to 
him,  as  the  matter  was  for  his  jurisdiction  and  decision. 

Their  answer  was  a  refusal  to  send  envoys,  and  they  sol- 
emnly declared  that  if  they  could  do  nothing  by  words,  they 
would  seek  some  means  of  vindicating  their  freedom.  There- 
upon Pinarius  replied,  that  if  they  felt  reluctance  to  send  to 
the  consuls,  they  might  at  least  allow  him  to  meet  the  people 
in  assembly,  so  that  it  might  be  known  whether  those  threats 
expressed  the  mind  of  all  the  citizens,  or  of  only  a  few.  By 
general  consent  an  assembly  was  proclaimed  for  the  follow- 
ing day. 

Pinarius,  after  this  conference,  retired  to  the  citadel,  and 
called  together  his  soldiers.  "  You  have  heard,  I  presume, 
soldiers,"  he  said,  "  how  the  Roman  garrisons  have  been  lately 
surprised  and  overpowered  by  the  Sicilians.  This  treachery 
you  have  escaped,  first  through  the  good  favour  of  the  gods, 
next  through  your  own  valour,  and  your  persistent  vigilance, 
day  and  night,  under  arms.  Would  that  it  might  be  possible 
to  get  through  the  future  also  without  either  enduring  or  per- 
petrating unutterable  horrors!  This  caution  which  we  have 
hitherto  used  has  been  directed  against  secret  treachery ;  but 
as  that  is  unsuccessful,  they  openly  and  publicly  demand  the 
keys  of  the  city  gates.  As  soon  as  we  have  surrendered  them, 
Enna  will  at  once  be  in  the  hands  of  the  Carthaginians,  and 
we  shall  be  massacred  here  more  foully  than  the  garrison  at 
Murgantia  was  massacred.  With  difficulty  I  have  obtained  a 
single  night  for  deliberation,  in  which  I  might  inform  you  of 
our  imminent  peril.  At  daybreak  they  are  to  hold  an  assem- 
bly, with  the  object  of  accusing  me  and  rousing  the  populace 
against  you.  So  on  the  morrow  Enna  will  be  deluged  either 
with  your  blood  or  with  the  blood  of  its  citizens.  If  you  are 
forestalled,  there  is  no  hope  for  you ;  if  you  forestall  them, 
there  is  no  danger.  The  victory  will  be  his  who  first  draws 
the  sword.  You  must  therefore  await  the  signal  ready  armed 
and  with  the  keenest  attention.  I  shall  be  at  the  assembly, 
and  I  will  spin  out  the  time  in  talking  and  discussing,  till  all  is 
ready.-  When  I  give  the  signal  by  raising  my  gown,  let  me 
hear  you  raise  a  general  shout ;  rush  on  the  crowd  and  strike 
down  everything  with  the  sword.  See  that  no  one  survives 
from  whom  we  can  fear  either  force  or  fraud.  I  pray  you, 
Mother  Ceres  and  Proserpina,  and  all  you  other  gods  of  the 
upper  and  under  worlds  who  haunt  this  city,  and  these  sacred 
lakes  and  groves,  to  stand  by  us,  willing  and  propitious  helpers, 
if  and  if  only  we  are  forming  this  our  plan  to  escape,  not  to  in- 


B.C.  214]  THE    MASSACRE   AT   ENNA  451 

flict,  injury.  I  would  say  more  to  exhort  you,  soldiers,  if  you 
were  going  to  fight  with  armed  men.  But  it  will  be  unarmed 
and  unprepared  men  whom  you  will  slaughter  till  you  are 
weary.  And  the  consul's  camp  is  in  the  neighbourhood,  so 
that  we  need  fear  nothing  from  Himilco  and  the  Cartha- 
ginians." 

After  thus  exhorting  them  he  dismissed  them  to  seek  re- 
freshment and  rest.  Next  day  some  posted  themselves  at 
various  points  to  block  the  streets  and  close  all  egress  against 
the  citizens,  while  most  of  them  gathered  round  the  theatre  or 
on  the  ground  above  it,  as  they  had  been  accustomed  to  be 
spectators  of  the  assemblies.  The  Roman  commander  was 
then  introduced  to  the  people  by  the  magistrates.  He  stated 
that  to  the  consul  and  not  to  himself  belonged  the  rightful  de- 
cision of  the  matter,  and  repeated  for  the  most  part  what  he 
had  said  the  day  before,  and  they,  first  with  some  hesitation, 
then  in  increasing  numbers,  and  at  last  with  one  voice,  bade 
him  surrender  the  keys.  As  he  hesitated  and  delayed,  they 
assailed  him  with  savage  threats,  and  it  seemed  that  fatal 
violence  would  not  be  deferred  another  instant.  Then  the 
officer  gave  with  his  gown  the  signal  that  had  been  arranged. 
His  soldiers,  long  eager  and  prepared,  raised  a  shout  and 
rushed  down,  some  from  above  taking  the  assembly  in  its  rear, 
while  others  in  close  array  barred  every  outlet  of  the  theatre. 
The  people  of  Enna,  pent  up  in  the  hollow,  were  cut  down, 
perishing  in  masses,  not  only  by  the  sword,  but  by  their  own 
efforts  to  flee,  as  they  flung  themselves  over  each  other's  heads, 
and  fell  in  heaps,  the  unhurt  on  the  wounded,  and  the  living  on 
the  dead.  Then  followed  a  wild  rush  in  all  directions  ;  it  was  as 
if  the  city  had  been  stormed ;  panic  and  slaughter  were  every- 
where, for  the  soldiers'  fury,  though  they  were  cutting  down 
an  unarmed  crowd,  was  no  less  fierce  than  if  an  equal  peril 
and  the  excitement  of  battle  had  stirred  them  up.  Enna  was 
thus  retained  for  Rome  by  an  evil,  but  a  necessary,  deed. 

Marcellus,  far  from  disapproving  of  this,  gave  up  the  spoil 
of  the  city  to  his  troops,  in  the  belief  that  the  Sicilians  would 
be  frightened  into  refraining  from  treacherous  betrayals  of  the 
Roman  garrisons.  And,  indeed,  this  blow  falling  on  a  city 
that  lies  in  the  centre  of  Sicily,  and  is  famous  alike  for  the 
natural  defences  which  make  its  position  conspicuous,  and  for 
the  associations  which  connect  every  spot  with  the  legendary 
Rape  of  Proserpine,  was  noised  throughout  the  whole  island 
almost  in  a  single  day.  By  this  infamous  massacre  had  been 
dishonoured,  so  all  men  felt,  the  dwelling,  not  of  mortals  only, 
but  of  gods,  and  therefore  those  who  had  hitherto  wavered, 


452  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.214 

now  revolted  to  the  Carthaginians.  Hippocrates  and  Himilco 
betook  themselves  respectively  to  Murgantia  and  Agrigentum, 
on  finding  that  it  was  to  no  purpose  that  they  had  advanced 
their  forces  at  the  invitation  of  the  traitors  to  Enna.  Mar- 
cellus  returned  to  Leontini ;  there  he  left  a  small  garrison, 
after  having  conveyed  to  his  camp  grain  and  other  supplies. 
He  then  marched  to  the  blockade  of  Syracuse,  whence  he  had 
sent  Appius  Claudius  to  Rome  to  stand  for  the  consulate,  ap- 
pointing in  his  place  Quintius  Crispinus  to  have  the  charge  of 
the  fleet  and  of  the  old  camp.  He  himself  meanwhile  fortified 
and  established  a  winter  camp,  five  miles  from  Hexapylon,  in 
a  place  called  Leon.  Such  were  the  events  which  took  place 
in  Sicily  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  winter. 

The  same  summer,  too,  a  war  which  had  been  apprehended 
for  some  time  broke  out  with  King  Philip.  Envoys  came  from 
Oricum  1  to  Marcus  Valerius,  the  praetor  who  had  charge  of 
the  fleet  off  Brundisium  and  the  neighbouring  shores  of  Cala- 
bria. They  brought  news,  first,  of  an  attempt  made  by  Philip 
on  Apollonia,2  whither  he  had  sailed  up  the  river  with  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty  light  two-oared  vessels ;  next,  that,  finding 
success  tardier  than  he  had  hoped,  he  had  secretly  by  night 
marched  his  army  to  Oricum,  which  city,  standing  as  it  did  in 
a  plain,  without  the  defence  of  walls  or  of  an  armed  garrison, 
had  been  overpowered  at  the  first  assault.  With  these  tidings 
they  coupled  a  prayer  for  aid,  begging  Valerius  to  defend  by 
land  and  sea,  against  one  who  was  an  undoubted  enemy  of 
Rome,  the  cities  on  the  coast,  which  were  being  threatened 
merely  because  they  commanded  the  shores  of  Italy. 

Marcus  Valerius,  leaving  a  force  on  the  spot  with  Publius 
Valerius,  his  lieutenant,  arrived  the  next  day  at  Oricum  with 
his  fleet  fully  equipped  and  prepared,  such  of  his  troops  as  his 
war-ships  could  not  receive  having  been  put  on  board  transport 
vessels.  After  a  single  engagement  he  retook  the  town,  which 
was  held  by  a  small  garrison  left  there  by  Philip  on  his  de- 
parture. Envoys  now  came  to  him  from  Apollonia,  to  say  that 
they  were  being  besieged  because  they  would  not  revolt  from 
Rome,  and  that,  unless  a  Roman  force  were  sent,  they  could  no 
longer  resist  the  Macedonian  attack.  Valerius  promised  that 
he  would  do  as  they  wished,  and  despatched  ten  thousand 
picked  troops  in  his  war-ships  to  the  mouth  of  the  river  under 
an  officer  of  allies,  Quintus  Nsevius  Crista,  an  energetic  and 
experienced  soldier.  Having  landed  his  men,  and  sent  the 
ships  back  to  the  fleet  at  Oricum,  his  starting-point,  Crista  led 

1  Now  Orico,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Aous. — D.  O. 
*  On  the  same  river,  about  six  miles  inland. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  2H]        PHILIP  DEFEATED  AT  APOLLONIA  453 

his  detachment  along  a  road  at  a  distance  from  the  river,  and 
mostly  free  from  the  king's  troops,  and  entered  the  city  by 
night,  unperceived  by  any  of  the  enemy.  Next  day  they  re- 
mained quiet,  while  he  was  reviewing  the  youth  of  Apollonia, 
and  the  strength  and  resources  of  the  city.  These,  when  seen 
and  examined,  inspired  him  with  sufficient  courage,  and  hav- 
ing also  ascertained  from  his  scouts  the  extreme  carelessness 
and  negligence  of  the  enemy,  he  marched  out  of  the  town 
without  the  slightest  noise  in  the  stillness  of  night,  and  entered 
the  enemy's  camp,  which  was  so  unguarded  and  open  that  it 
was  generally  understood  that  a  thousand  men  had  passed  the 
line  before  any  one  was  aware  of  it.  Had  they  refrained  from 
slaughter,  they  might,  it  was  certain,  have  reached  the  royal 
tent.  The  enemy  was  aroused  by  the  slaughter  of  those  who 
were  nearest  to  the  camp  gate ;  then  followed  such  universal 
terror  and  panic  that,  so  far  from  a  single  man  seizing  his  arms 
and  endeavouring  to  drive  the  foe  out  of  the  camp,  the  king 
himself  fled  half  naked,  just  as  he  was  on  awakening  from  sleep, 
and,  in  a  plight  hardly  fit  for  a  soldier,  much  less  for  a  king, 
hurried  to  the  river  and  his  ships.  Thither  too  rushed  wildly 
the  rest  of  the  crowd.  Somewhat  less  than  three  thousand 
men  were  either  made  prisoners  or  slain  in  the  camp,  but  more 
were  captured  than  killed. 

When  the  camp  had  been  plundered,  the  citizens  of  Apol- 
lonia brought  back  to  their  city  the  catapults,  ballistas,  and 
other  engines  which  had  been  provided  for  the  siege  of  their 
town,  to  defend  its  walls  in  the  event  of  any  like  subsequent 
emergency.  All  the  rest  of  the  booty  was  given  up  to  the 
Romans.  When  the  news  reached  Oricum,  Marcus  Valerius 
at  once  moved  his  fleet  to  the  mouth  of  the  river,  that  it  might 
not  be  possible  for  the  king  to  make  his  escape  on  shipboard. 
Philip  accordingly  having  no  confidence  that  he  would  be  a 
match  for  his  foe  in  battle  by  land  or  sea,  hauled  his  vessels 
ashore  or  burned  them,  and  hurried  back  overland  to  Mace- 
donia with  an  army  for  the  most  part  without  arms  or  property. 
The  Roman  fleet  wintered  with  Marcus  Valerius  at  Oricum. 

The  military  operations  of  this  year  in  Spain  had  no  de- 
cided result.  Before  the  Romans  could  cross  the  Ebro,  Mago 
and  Hasdrubal  routed  an  immense  host  of  Spaniards.  Spain 
west  of  the  Ebro  would  have  revolted  from  Rome  had  not 
Scipio  rapidly  pushed  his  army  across  the  river,  and  arrived  at 
the  right  moment,  to  confirm  the  wavering  attachment  of  the 
allies.  First,  the  Romans  established  themselves  at  White 
Camp,  a  spot  made  memorable  by  the  fall  of  the  great  Hamil- 
car.  It  was  a  fortified  position,  and  stores  of  grain  had  there 


454  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  214 

been  previously  collected.  But,  as  the  whole  neighbourhood 
swarmed  with  the  enemy,  whose  cavalry  had  with  impunity 
harassed  the  Romans  on  their  march,  slaughtering  as  many  as 
two  thousand  loiterers  or  stragglers  in  the  fields,  the  Romans 
retired  toward  a  quiet  district,  and  fortified  a  camp  at  Mount 
Victory.  Thither  came  Cneius  Scipio  in  full  force,  and  Has- 
drubal,  too,  the  son  of  Gisgo,  making  in  all  three  Carthaginian 
generals,  with  an  army  in  all  respects  complete.  All  three 
now  confronted  the  Roman  camp  from  the  opposite  side  of 
the  river.  Publius  Scipio  went  out  unobserved  with  some 
light  troops  to  reconnoitre  the  surrounding  country,  but  he 
did  not  delude  the  enemy.  He  would  have  been  overpowered 
on  open  ground,  had  he  not  seized  a  neighbouring  eminence. 
There  he  was  hemmed  in,  and  released  from  blockade  only 
by  his  brother's  arrival. 

Castulo,1  a  powerful  and  famous  Spanish  town,  and  so 
closely  allied  to  the  Carthaginians  that  Hannibal  married  his 
wife  from  it,  revolted  to  Rome.  The  Carthaginians  attempted 
to  storm  Illiturgis,  as  there  was  a  Roman  garrison  in  the 
place,  and  it  seemed  that  they  would  reduce  it  without  fail 
by  famine.  Cneius  Scipio  set  out  with  a  legion  lightly 
equipped  to  bring  succour  to  his  allies  and  to  the  garrison,  and 
passing  between  the  enemy's  two  camps  entered  the  city,  in 
flicting  on  them  great  loss.  Next  day  he  fought  them  in  a 
sortie  that  was  equally  successful.  In  the  two  engagements 
more  than  twelve  thousand  of  the  enemy  were  slain;  more 
than  a  thousand  taken  prisoners,  with  thirty-six  standards. 
And  so  they  retired  from  Illiturgis.  Then  they  began  to  be- 
siege Bigerra,2  a  city  also  in  alliance  with  Rome.  Cneius 
Scipio  came  up  and  raised  the  blockade  without  fighting. 

The  Carthaginian  camp  was  next  moved  to  Munda,3  and 
thither  the  Romans  instantly  followed  them.  There  was  a 
pitched  battle  of  four  hours,  and  the  Romans  were  winning  a 
decisive  victory,  when  the  signal  for  retreat  was  given,  because 
Cneius  Scipio  had  his  thigh  completely  pierced  by  a  javelin. 
A  panic  seized  the  soldiers  round  him,  who  feared  that  the 
wound  might  be  mortal.  But  for  this  hindrance  there  was 
no  question  that  the  Carthaginian  camp  would  have  been  taken 
that  day.  Their  soldiers  and  their  elephants  too  had  already 
been  driven  into  their  intrenchments,  close  to  which  thirty-nine 
of  the  elephants  had  been  transfixed  by  the  Roman  darts.  It 
is  said  that  in  this  battle  too  there  fell  upward  of  twelve  thou- 

1  On  the  upper  course  of  the  Baetis. — D.  O. 

*  Probably  the  modern  Becerra. — D.  O. 

*  Its  location  was  probably  not  far  from  Corduba. — D.  O. 


B.  C.  214]  SAGUNTUM  RETAKEN  BY  THE  ROMANS 


455 


sand  men,  and  that  nearly  three  thousand  were  made  prisoners, 
with  fifty-seven  standards. 

The  Carthaginians  then  retired  to  the  town  of  Aurinx, 
whither  the  Romans  pursued  them,  taking  advantage  of  their 
terror.  There  again  Scipio  engaged  them,  being  borne  into 
the  battle  on  a  litter.  It  was  an  undoubted  victory,  though 
less  by  half  fell  of  the  enemy  than  in  the  previous  battle ;  far 
fewer  indeed  surviving  to  fight.  But  it  is  the  nature  of  this 
people  to  renew  and  repair  the  losses  of  war,  and  when  Mago, 
the  commander's  brother,  had  been  despatched  to  raise  re- 
cruits, they  soon  filled  up  the  gaps  in  their  army,  and  recover- 
ing their  courage  ventured  on  a  fresh  contest.  They  had  for 
the  most  part  new  soldiers,  and  feeling  themselves  on  a  side 
which  within  a  few  days  had  been  so  repeatedly  vanquished, 
they  fought  with  the  same  spirit  and  same  result  as  before. 
More  than  eight  thousand  men  were  slain ;  not  less  than  a 
thousand  made  prisoners  with  fifty-eight  standards.  The 
spoil  taken  was  chiefly  Gallic,  a  profusion  of  golden  chains  and 
bracelets.  In  this  battle  there  also  fell  two  renowned  Gallic 
chiefs,, by  name  Mceniaccepto  and  Vismaro.  Eight  elephants 
were  taken  and  three  killed.  Now  that  they  had  won  these 
successes  in  Spain,  the  Romans  at  last  felt  shame  at  the  town 
of  Saguntum,  which  had  occasioned  the  war,  having  been  for 
nearly  eight  years  in  the  enemy's  power.  So  they  retook  the 
place,  after  forcibly  expelling  the  Carthaginian  garrison,  and 
restored  it  to  such  of  the  old  inhabitants  as  the  violence  of  war 
had  spared.  The  Turdetani,  who  had  involved  them  in  hos- 
tilities with  the  Carthaginians,  they  reduced  to  subjection,  sold 
them  by  public  auction,  and  razed  their  city. 

Such  were  the  Roman  operations  in  Spain  during  the 
consulate  of  Quintus  Fabius  and  Marcus  Claudius.  As  soon 
as  new  tribunes  entered  on  their  office  at  Rome,  the  censors, 
Publius  Furius  and  Marcus  Atilius,  were  at  once  summoned 
by  Lucius  Metellus,  one  of  the  tribunes,  to  appear  before  the 
popular  assembly.  Metellus  had  been  quaestor  in  the  previous 
year,  and  had  then  been  deprived  by  the  censors  of  his  horse, 
removed  from  his  tribe,  and  disfranchised,  as  having  engaged 
at  Cannae  in  a  conspiracy  to  abandon  Italy.  By  the  interven- 
tion, however,  of  the  other  nine  tribunes,  the  trial  of  the  de- 
fendants, while  they  were  in  office,  was  forbidden,  and  their 
case  was  dismissed.  They  did  not  complete  the  census,  Furius 
being  prevented  by  death,  and  Atilius  retiring  from  office. 

The  consular  elections  were  held  by  the  consul  Quintus 
Fabius  Maximus.  Both  consuls  were  elected  in  their  ab- 
sence— Quintus  Fabius,  the  consul's  son,  and  Tiberius  Sem- 


456  LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  C.  213 

pronius  Gracchus  for  the  second  time.  The  new  praetors  were 
Marcus  Atilius,  Publius  Sempronius  Tuditanus,  Cneius  Ful- 
vius  Centumalus,  and  Marcus  ^milius  Lepidus,  of  whom  the 
last  three  were  at  the  time  curule  aediles.  It  is  on  record  that 
that  year,  for  the  first  time,  dramatic  games  lasting  four  days 
were  conducted  .by  these  officials.  The  aedile  Tuditanus  was 
the  man  who  escaped  at  Cannae  through  the  midst  of  the  ene- 
my, while  others  were  stupefied  at  the  magnitude  of  the  disas- 
ter. The  elections  over,  the  consuls  elect  were,  at  the  advice 
of  the  consul  Quintus  Fabius,  summoned  to  Rome,  and  then 
entered  on  office.  The  senate  was  consulted  by  them  as  to  the 
war  and  the  assignment  of  provinces  to  themselves  and  to 
the  praetors,  and  as  to  the  command  of  the  armies. 

A  distribution  was  accordingly  made  of  the  provinces  and 
armies.  The  war  with  Hannibal  was  intrusted  to  the  consuls, 
with  two  armies,  one  of  which  Sempronius  himself  had  already 
commanded,  Fabius  having  the  other.  Each  army  consisted 
of  two  legions.  The  praetor  Marcus  ^Emilius,  who  had  the 
jurisdiction  over  aliens,  was  to  assign  it  to  his  colleague  the 
city  praetor,  Marcus  Atilius,  and  have  the  province  of  Luceria 
and  the  two  legions  which  had  been  under  the  command  of 
Quintus  Fabius,  the  present  consul,  when  praetor.  To  Publius 
Sempronius  and  Cneius  Fulvius  fell,  respectively,  as  their 
provinces,  Ariminum  1  and  Suessula,  each  having  also  two 
legions.  Fabius  was  to  command  the  city  legions,  and  Tudi- 
tanus to  have  those  of  Manius  Pomponius.  Some  commands 
and  provincial  governorships  were  extended,  Claudius  retain- 
ing Sicily  within  the  boundaries  which  limited  Hiero's  king- 
dom, while  the  old  province  was  to  be  under  Lentulus  as  pro- 
praetor.2 Titus  Otacilius  had  the  fleet,  to  which  no  fresh  troops 
were  added.  Marcus  Valerius  had  Greece  and  Macedonia 
with  the  legion  and  fleet  he  commanded;  Quintus  Mucius 
with  his  old  army,  consisting  of  two  legions,  kept  Sardinia. 
Caius  Terentius  retained  Picenum  with  the  legion  already 
under  his  command.  A  vote  was  carried  to  raise  two  addi- 
tional city  legions  and  twenty  thousand  allies.  Such  were  the 
generals,  such  the  armies  with  which  Rome's  empire  was 
to  be  simultaneously  defended  against  a  number  of  attacks, 
begun  or  threatened. 

Having  raised  the  two  city  legions  and  recruited  others,  the 
consuls,  before  moving  from  Rome,  expiated  certain  portents 
of  which  they  had  received  information.  The  city  walls  and 

1  That  is,  Gallia,  of  which  it  was  the  chief  Roman  station. — D.  O. 
1  That  is,  Sicily  was  now  divided  into  two  provinces,  the  new  one  being 
th?  realm  of  their  former  ally. — D,  O, 


B.  C.  213]  ELECTIONS   HELD  457 

gates,  and  also  a  Temple  of  Jupiter  at  Aricia,  had  been  struck 
by  lightning.  Moreover,  some  illusions  of  the  eye  and  ear  had 
been  taken  for  realities:  the  semblance  of  war-ships,  which 
had  no  existence,  had  been  seen  on  the  river  at  Tarracina,  and 
at  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Vicilinus  in  the  district  of  Compsa  * 
the  clash  of  arms  had  been  heard.  The  river  at  Amiternum 
too  had  flowed  with  blood.  These  portents  having  been  ex- 
piated in  obedience  to  a  resolution  of  the  pontiffs,  the  consuls 
took  their  departure,  Sempronius  for  Lucania,  Fabius  for 
Apulia.  The  father 2  entered  the  camp  at  Suessula  as  his  son's 
lieutenant ;  the  son  went  out  to  meet  him  preceded  by  the 
lictors,  who  were  silent  out  of  respect  for  his  high  rank.  The 
old  man  rode  past  eleven  of  these  officers,  upon  which  the  con- 
sul bade  the  lictor  at  his  side  to  mind  his  duty.  The  man 
shouted  to  the  rider  to  dismount,  and  then  at  last  the  father, 
springing  from  his  horse,  exclaimed,  "  I  wished  to  try  you, 
my  son,  and  see  whether  you  really  knew  that  you  were  a 
consul." 

A  native  of  Arpi,3  Dasius  Altinius,  entered  the  camp  secret- 
ly by  night  with  three  slaves,  and  promised  that  for  a  reward 
he  would  betray  the  town.  Fabius  having  referred  the  matter 
to  a  council,  some  were  of  opinion  that  he  ought  to  be  scourged 
and  executed  as  a  deserter,  a  double-minded  man,  and  conse- 
quently a  common  enemy.  After  the  disaster  of  Cannae  he 
had  gone  over  to  Hannibal  and  drawn  Arpi  into  revolt,  as  if 
good  faith  ought  to  stand  or  fall  with  success.  Now  that 
Rome's  power  was,  so  to  say,  reviving,  contrary  to  his  hopes 
and  wishes,  it  would  seem  still  baser  to  pay  back  with  treachery 
the  victims  of  treachery  in  times  past.  The  man  who  is  per- 
petually changing  his  side  and  his  sympathies  is  an  unfaithful 
ally  and  a  contemptible  foe.  Let  him  be  added  to  the  be- 
trayers of  Falerii  and  of  Pyrrhus,4  a  third  warning  to  all  de- 
serters. 

To  these  arguments  the  consul's  father,  Fabius,  replied: 
"  Men  under  the  excitement  of  war  forget  the  necessities  of  the 
time,  and  pronounce  freely  their  judgment  on  each  case  ex- 
actly as  if  they  were  at  peace.  Although  we  ought  above  all 
things  to  strive  and  consider  how,  if  possible,  not  a  single  ally 
may  revolt  from  the  Roman  people,  you  do  not  in  fact  con- 
sider this,  but  contend  for  the  duty  of  holding  up  as  a  warning 

1  Apparently  a  surname  of  Jupiter  among  the  Hirpini  who  inhabited 
this  district. — D.  O. 

*  Quintus  Fabius  Maximus,  the  former  dictator. — D.  O. 

»  In  Apulia.— D.  O. 

4  Alluding  to  the  Falerian  schoolmaster  who  offered  to  surrender  his 
pupils,  and  to  the  physician  who  offered  to  poison  Pyrrhus.— D.  O. 


458  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [B.  c.  213 

any  one  who  may  repent  and  look  back  with  regret  on  the  old 
alliance.  If  people  are  to  be  allowed  to  forsake  Rome,  but  not 
to  return  to  her,  who  can  doubt  that  Rome's  empire  will  soon 
be  deserted  by  its  allies,  and  will  see  every  part  of  Italy  united 
by  treaty  to  Carthage?  Still,  I  am  not  the  man  to  think  that 
we  ought  to  put  any  faith  in  Altinius.  I  would  follow  a  mid- 
dle course,  and  for  the  present  take  him  neither  for  a  foe  nor 
for  an  ally.  I  should  like  to  see  him,  while  the  war  lasts,  kept 
in  honourable  custody  near  the  camp  in  some  state  which  we 
can  trust.  The  war  over,  we  must  then  consider  whether 
punishment  was  the  just  due  of  his  previous  defection,  or  par- 
don that  of  his  subsequent  return." 

Fabius  won  their  assent.  The  man  was  put  in  chains,  and 
both  he  and  his  companions  became  prisoners.  He  had 
brought  with  him  a  very  considerable  weight  of  gold,  and 
this  by  express  order  was  to  be  kept  for  him.  At  Cales  he 
had  his  liberty  during  the  day  under  the  surveillance  of  at- 
tendants ;  by  night  he  was  in  confinement  under  their  watch. 
People  began  at  first  to  miss  him  at  his  home  at  Arpi  and  to 
inquire  after  him ;  soon  rumours  spread  through  the  whole 
town  and  caused  an  uproar,  men  believing  that  they  had  lost 
their  chief  citizen.  In  the  dread  of  a  revolution  envoys  were 
instantly  despatched  to  Hannibal.  At  this  the  Carthaginian 
was  by  no  means  displeased,  for  he  had  long  held  the  man  in 
suspicion,  as  one  whose  loyalty  was  doubtful,  and  now  he  had 
got  a  pretext  for  seizing  and  selling  the  property  of  a  particu- 
larly rich  citizen.  But  as  he  wished  to  seem  to  yield  to  anger 
rather  than  to  avarice,  he  added  cruelty  to  rapacity.  He  sum- 
moned to  his  camp  the  wife  and  children  of  Altinius,  and  hav- 
ing held  an  inquiry,  first  into  the  circumstances  of  his  flight, 
then  into  the  amount  of  gold  and  silver  left  in  his  house,  and 
ascertained  all  these  particulars,  he  burned  them  alive. 

Fabius  quitted  Suessula  and  first  applied  himself  vigor- 
ously to  the  siege  of  Arpi.  He  encamped  about  half  a  mile 
from  the  city,  and  having  taken  a  near  view  of  the  situation 
of  the  city  and  its  walls,  he  resolved  to  attack  it  by  preference 
where  it  was  most  strongly  fortified,  as  being  there  most  care- 
lessly guarded.  Having  provided  everything  used  in  attack- 
ing towns,  he  picked  out  the  flower  of  the  centurions  from  his 
entire  army,  putting  them  under  the  command  of  tribunes, 
gallant  officers  all  of  them,  and  assigning  them  six  hundred 
soldiers,  a  sufficiently  large  force,  as  he  judged.  They  had 
orders  from  him  to  bring  up  scaling-ladders  to  the  place  se- 
lected, as  soon  as  the  signal  of  the  fourth  night  watch  had 
sounded.  The  gate  there  was  low  and  narrow,  leading  to  an 


B.C.  213]  FABIUS   TAKES   ARPI  459 

unfrequented  street  through  a  deserted  part  of  the  town. 
When  they  had  scaled  the  gate  with  their  ladders,  they  were 
to  hasten  to  the  wall  and  forcibly  break  open  the  bars  from 
the  inside,  and  as  soon  as  they  were  in  possession  of  a  por- 
tion of  the  town,  they  were  to  give  a  signal  by  trumpet  for  the 
rest  of  the  army  to  advance.  Fabius  assured  them  that  he 
would  have  everything  prepared  and  ready. 

All  this  was  promptly  done.  What  seemed  likely  to  prove 
a  hindrance  to  the  attempt  mainly  contributed  to  conceal  it. 
A  storm  which  began  at  midnight  drove  the  guards  and  sen- 
tries to  slip  away  from  their  post  and  seek  shelter  in  the  houses. 
At  first  the  loud  sound  of  an  unusually  heavy  rain  drowned 
the  noise  of  the  men  who  were  working  at  the  gate ;  after- 
ward, when  it  fell  more  softly  and  regularly  on  the  ear,  it 
lulled  many  that  heard  it  to  slumber.  As  soon  as  the  Romans 
had  possession  of  the  gate,  trumpeters  were  stationed  at  equal 
intervals  along  the  street  and  directed  to  sound  a  blast  to  give 
notice  to  the  consul.  This  having  been  done,  as  already  ar- 
ranged, he  ordered  a  general  advance,  and  shortly  before  dawn 
entered  the  city  through  the  gate  that  was  broken  down. 

This  at  last  awoke  the  enemy ;  the  storm  too  was  now 
abating,  and  day  was  breaking.  Hannibal  had  a  garrison  in 
the  town  of  about  five  thousand  men,  and  the  citizens  them- 
selves had  equipped  three  thousand  soldiers.  These  were  the 
first  set  to  oppose  the  enemy  by  the  Carthaginians,  who  feared 
treachery  in  their  rear.  The  fight  began  in  darkness  and  in 
narrow  streets,  the  Romans  having  occupied  not  only  the 
thoroughfares,  but  also  the  buildings  which  adjoined  the  gate, 
to  save  themselves  from  being  assailed  and  wounded  from  the 
housetops.  Some  of  the  inhabitants  and  some  of  the  Romans 
recognised  each  other,  and  this  gave  rise  to  conversations  in 
which  the  Romans  asked  what  the  citizens  wanted.  What 
offence  had  the  Romans  given  them,  or  what  had  the  Cartha- 
ginians done  for  them  that  they,  an  Italian  people,  should  be 
waging  war  for  aliens  and  barbarians  against  their  old  allies, 
and  endeavouring  to  make  Italy  pay  taxes  and  tribute  to 
Africa?  The  people  of  Arpi  excused  themselves  by  saying 
that  they  had  been  sold  in  utter  ignorance  by  their  chief  citi- 
zens to  the  Carthaginian  ;  that  they  had  been,  in  fact,  the  prey 
and  the  victims  of  a  few  men.  A  beginning  once  made,  many 
more  took  part  in  these  conversations,  till  at  last  the  governor 
of  Arpi  was  conducted  by  his  fellow-citizens  to  the  consul; 
pledges  were  given  amid  the  standards  and  the  ranks,  and  the 
towns-people  suddenly  turned  their  arms  against  the  Cartha- 
ginians in  favour  of  Rome.  Some  Spaniards  too,  to  the  num- 


460  LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY  [8.0.213 

her  of  little  less  than  a  thousand,  carried  over  their  standards 
to  the  consul,  simply  bargaining  with  him  for  the  dismissal 
of  the  Carthaginian  garrison  without  injury.  The  city  gates 
were  thrown  open  for  the  Carthaginian  soldiers,  who  were  let 
go  with  an  assurance  of  protection  and  reached  Hannibal  at 
Salapia  in  safety.  Arpi  was  restored  to  the  Romans  without 
the  destruction  of  a  single  life  but  that  of  one  man,  a  traitor 
long  before,  and  recently  a  deserter.  Orders  were  given  that 
the  Spanish  troops  should  be  served  with  double  rations,  and 
the  state  often  availed  itself  of  their  brave  and  faithful  service. 

While  one  consul  was  in  Apulia  and  the  other  in  Lucania, 
a  hundred  and  twelve  noble  Campanian  knights,  who  had 
started  from  Capua  by  permission  of  the  magistrates  on  the 
pretext  of  plundering  the  enemy's  territory,  came  to  the 
Roman  camp  overlooking  Suessula.  They  told  a  sentry  who 
they  were,  and  said  that  they  wished  to  have  an  interview  with 
the  praetor.  Cneius  Fulvius  was  in  command  of  the  camp, 
and  on  his  receiving  the  message  he  ordered  twelve  out  of 
their  number  to  be  conducted  thither,  unarmed.  When  he 
heard  their  request  (they  asked  merely  that  on  the  recovery 
of  Capua  their  property  might  be  restored  to  them),  he  re- 
ceived them  all  under  his  protection.  The  other  praetor,  Sem- 
pronius  Tuditanus,  stormed  the  town  of  Aternum,1  in  which 
more  than  seven  thousand  men  were  made  prisoners,  and  a 
considerable  amount  of  copper  and  silver  coin  taken. 

At  Rome  a  dreadful  fire  lasted  two  nights  and  one  entire 
day.  All  between  the  Salinas  and  the  Carmental  gate,  includ- 
ing the  ^Equimaelian  and  Jugarian  quarters,2  was  levelled  to 
the  ground,  together  with  the  Temples  of  Fortune  and  of 
Mother  Matula:  also  outside  the  gate,  the  fire  spread  widely, 
and  destroyed  many  objects,  both  sacred  and  profane. 

The  same  year  the  two  Cornelii,  Publius  and  Cneius,  being 
successful  in  Spain,  where  they  recovered  many  old  and  won 
some  new  allies,  extended  their  designs  to  Africa.  Syphax, 
king  of  the  Numidians,  had  suddenly  become  a  foe  to  Car- 
thage, and  to  him  they  despatched  three  centurions  as  en- 
voys, to  negotiate  a  friendship  and  alliance.  He  was  to  be 
assured  that,  if  he  would  persist  in  constant  hostility  to  Car- 
thage, he  would  have  the  thanks  of  the  senate  and  people  of 
Rome,  who  would  make  an  effort  to  repay  his  services  at  a 
seasonable  moment  and  with  good  interest.  The  barbarian 
prince  welcomed  the  embassy.  He  had  a  conversation  with 

1  Now  Pescara. — D.  O. 

*  Practically  all  the  river  front  from  the  base  of  the  Aventine  to  that  of 
the  Capitol.— D.  O. 


B.  C.  213]  MASIN1SSA  461 

the  envoys  on  the  science  of  war,  and  on  hearing  the  talk  of 
the  veterans  he  perceived,  by  comparing  such  a  well-organized 
system  with  his  own,  how  many  things  there  were  of  which  he 
knew  nothing.  Then,  desirous  of  having  their  aid  as  good 
and  faithful  allies,  he  first  begged  that  two  of  the  envoys  might 
report  their  negotiations  to  their  commanding  officers,  one 
remaining  with  him  to  be  his  instructor  in  military  matters. 
For  his  Numidian  people  did  not  understand  infantry  fighting, 
and  were  skilled  only  with  their  horses.  It  was  with  these  that 
their  forefathers  from  the  earliest  beginnings  of  their  nation 
had  waged  their  wars,  and  it  was  to  these  that  Numidians  were 
habituated  from  boyhood.  But  he  had  an  enemy  who  trusted 
to  the  might  of  his  infantry,  and  if  he  wished  to  be  his  match 
in  solid  strength,  he  must  provide  himself  with  men  on  foot, 
and  for  this  his  kingdom  had  an  abundant  population.  Of 
the  science  of  arming,  equipping,  and  drilling  them  he  was, 
however,  utterly  ignorant;  just  as  in  a  casually  collected 
crowd,  all  was  disorder  and  left  to  chance. 

The  envoys  replied  that  they  would  do  as  he  wished  for 
the  present,  and  received  a  promise  that,  should  their  com- 
mander not  approve  the  result,  the  man  was  to  be  at  once 
sent  back.  Quintus  Statorius  was  the  name  of  the  envoy  who 
stayed  with  the  king.  With  the  two  Romans  the  Numidian 
himself  despatched  envoys  to  put  himself  under  the  protection 
of  the  Roman  generals.  He  further  gave  these  envoys  in- 
structions to  forthwith  encourage  desertion  among  all  Numid- 
ians serving  as  auxiliaries  in  Carthaginian  garrisons.  Sta- 
torius, out  of  the  numerous  youth  of  the  country,  raised  a  force 
of  infantry  for  the  king.  This  he  disciplined  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible in  Roman  fashion,  teaching  the  men  by  drill  and  by 
marching  them  under  arms  to  follow  the  standards  and  keep 
their  ranks.  So  thoroughly  did  he  habituate  them  to  camp- 
work  and  proper  military  duties,  that  the  king  soon  had  as 
much  confidence  in  his  infantry  as  in  his  cavalry,  and  he  de- 
feated his  Carthaginian  enemy  in  a  regular  action  in  which 
the  armies  met  on  level  ground.  To  the  Romans  also  in 
Spain  the  visit  of  the  king's  envoys  was  of  great  service,  as  on 
the  rumour  of  their  arrival,  there  began  to  be  numerous  de- 
sertions on  the  part  of  the  Numidians.  It  was  thus  that  a 
friendship  was  formed  between  Syphax  and  the  Romans.  The 
Carthaginians,  on  hearing  this,  at  once  despatched  an  embassy 
to  Gala,  a  king  who  reigned  in  another  part  of  Numidia,  the 
inhabitants  of  which  are  called  Massyli. 

Gala  had  a  son  Masinissa,  seventeen  years  of  age,  yet  a 
youth  of  such  character  that  it  was  already  evident  that  he 


462  LiW's  ROMAN  HISTORY  [B.  c.  213 

would  make  his  kingdom  larger  and  more  powerful  than  what- 
ever he  might  inherit.  It  was  argued  by  the  envoys  that,  as 
Syphax  had  allied  himself  with  Rome,  to  make  himself  more 
formidable  to  the  kings  and  nations  of  Africa,  it  would  be 
better  for  Gala  in  turn  to  join  the  Carthaginians  as  soon  as 
possible,  before  Syphax  could  cross  into  Spain  or  the  Romans 
into  Africa.  Syphax  could  be  crushed,  while  as  yet  he  had 
nothing  from  his  treaty  with  Rome  except  the  name  of  it. 
Gala,  as  his  son  insisted  on  the  war,  was  easily  persuaded  to 
send  an  army,  which,  united  to  the  legions  of  Carthage,  de- 
feated Syphax  in  a  great  battle.  Thirty  thousand  men,  it  is 
said,  fell  in  the  action.  Syphax  fled  from  the  field  with  a  few 
horsemen  to  the  Maurusii,  a  remote  tribe  dwelling  near  the 
ocean,  opposite  to  Gades.  His  renown  gathered  the  barba- 
rians round  him  from  all  parts,  and  he  soon  equipped  an  im- 
mense host.  But  before  he  could  cross  with  it  the  narrow 
strait  which  parted  him  from  Spain,  Masinissa  arrived  with 
his  victorious  army.  There,  without  any  aid  from  Carthage, 
he  carried  on  the  war  by  himself  with  Syphax  and  won  great 
glory. 

Nothing  memorable  took  place  in  Spain  except  that  the 
Roman  generals  secured  for  themselves  the  services  of  the 
Celtiberian  youth  on  the  same  terms  for  which  an  arrangement 
had  been  made  with  the  Carthaginians.  They  also  sent  more 
than  three  hundred  Spaniards  of  the  highest  rank  into  Italy, 
to  excite  dissatisfaction  among  such  of  their  countrymen  as 
were  serving  among  Hannibal's  auxiliaries.  The  only  event 
of  the  year  in  Spain  remarkable  enough  to  be  recorded  is, 
that  the  Romans  never  had  a  single  mercenary  soldier  in  their 
camp  till  they  now  had  the  Celtiberi.1 

1  There  are  several  previous  instances  of  the  employment  of  mercena- 
ries of  special  arms.  Perhaps,  however,  as  G.  C.  Macaulay  suggests,  they 
may  not  have  been  permitted  to  occupy  a  place  in  the  legionary  camp. — 
D.  O. 


INDEX 


Abelux,  native  of  Saguntum,  his 
treachery  to  the  Carthaginians, 
315,  3i6- 

Acerrae,  Hannibal  retires  to,  372 ; 
takes  and  burns  the  city,  373. 

Achradina,  the,  part  of  the  city  of 
Syracuse,  432. 

Acilius,  255. 

Acrae,  city  in  Sicily,  448. 

Acrillae,  Hippocrates  encamps  at, 
448  ;  his  command  defeated  and 
cut  to  pieces  by  Marcellus  at, 
448- 

Actium,  battle  of,  22. 

Acuca,  town  in  Apulia,  taken  by 
Fabius,  430. 

^Ebutius,  Titus,  consul,  93 ;  mas- 
ter of  the  horse,  94. 

jEbutius,  Lucius,  consul,  154 ;  dies 
of  the  plague,  155. 

jEcae,  town  in  Apulia,  stormed  by 
Fabius,  430. 

^Egates  Islands,  243,  270,  278  ; 
Carthaginian  fleet  sighted  off 
the,  347. 

jElius,  Quintus,  Paetus,  candidate 
for  the  consulship,  328  ;  his  death 
at  Cannae,  378, 

^Emilius,  Lucius,  consul,  defeats 
the  ./Equans  and  Volscians,  121  ; 
defeats  the  Etruscans  at  the  Red 
Rocks,  131. 

jEmilius,  Lucius,  Papius,  finance 
commissioner,  378. 

./Emilius,  Lucius,  Paulus,  envoy  to 
Carthage,  249 ;  in  Spain  and 
Gaul,  251  ;  returns  to  Rome,  252  ; 
re-elected  consul,  328 ;  commis- 
erated by  Fabius  on  setting  out 
from  the  city,  331  ;  his  reply  to 
the  speech  of  Fabius,  333 ;  his 
death  at  Cannae,  340. 

^Emilius,  Marcus,  Lepidus,  praetor 
in  Sicily  at  beginning  of  second 


Punic  war,  278  ;  praetor,  appoint- 
ed to  carry  out  ceremonies  decreed 
by  the  Sacred  Books,  303  ;  candi- 
date for  the  consulship,  328 ;  fu- 
neral games  for,  by  his  three 
sons,  388. 

^Emilius,  Marcus,  Lepidus,  praetor, 
456. 

jEmilius,  Marcus,  Regillus,  nomi- 
nated for  the  consulship,  is  op- 
posed by  Fabius,  417. 

jEmilius,  Titus,  consul,  143,  148 ; 
lays  waste  the  Sabine  territory, 
145- 

jEneas,  comes  to  Macedonia,  i  ;  is 
driven  ashore  at  Sicily,  i  ;  lands 
in  Italy,  i  ;  defeats  Etruscans  and 
Rutulians,  3 ;  is  killed  in  bat- 
tle, 3. 

jtneas  Silvius,  son  of  Silvius,  4. 

^Equans,  62,  64,  108 ;  lay  siege  to 
Ortona,  122  ;  surprise  Tusculum 
by  night,  174 ;  are  defeated  and 
sent  under  the  yoke,  175 ;  ad- 
vance under  Gracchus  Cloelius 
to  Algidum,  177  ;  sent  under  the 
yoke  by  Lucius  Quinctius  Cincin- 
natus,  181. 

^Equimaelian  quarter  at  Rome,  fire 
in  the,  460. 

.-Equicolas,  ancient  nation,  39. 

Africanus,  son  of  Cornelius,  275  ; 
saves  his  father,  275. 

Agrarian  law,  first  proposed,  rig  ; 
defeated,  121. 

Agrigentum,  city  in  Sicily,  taken 
by  Himilco,  447. 

Agrippa,  son  of  Tiberinus,  4. 

Agrippa  Menenius.  See  Meneni- 
us. 

Alba,  son  of  Latinus  Silvius,  4. 

Alba  Longa,  built  by  Ascanius,  3  ; 
26,  27,  32 ;  destruction  of,  35 ; 
prodigies  at,  37. 


463 


464 


LIVY'S   ROMAN    HISTORY 


Alban  families  enrolled  among  the 
patricians,  36. 

Albans,  under  Mettius,  desert  Tul- 
lus,  33  ;  moved  to  Rome  by  Tul- 
lus,  35. 

Albinus,  Lucius,  elected  tribune  of 
the  people,  no. 

Albula  (Tiber),  3. 

Alcon,  a  Saguntine,  tries  to  nego- 
tiate peace  with  Hannibal,  245  ; 
deserts  to  Hannibal,  245. 

Alexandria,  365. 

Alfius,  Marius,  chief  magistrate  of 
the  Campanians,  395 ;  his  death  at 
Hamae,  395. 

Algidum,  city,  149  ;  ambassadors 
sent  to  the  JEquans  in  camp  at,  177. 

Alimentus.     See  Cincius. 

Allia,  the  disaster  at  the,  defeat  at 
Cannae  compared  with,  341,  349. 

Allies,  waver  in  their  fidelity  to 
Rome  after  the  battle  of  Cannae, 
and  many  tribes  revolt,  354. 

Allifae,  307,  311. 

Allobroges,  Gallic  tribe,  261  ;  Han- 
nibal settles  a  revolution  among 
the,  261. 

Alorcus,  a  Spaniard,  tries  to  nego- 
tiate peace  between  Hannibal  and 
the  Saguntines,  245-247. 

Altinus,  Dasius,  of  Arpi,  his  treach- 
ery to  the  Carthaginians,  457 ; 
wife  and  children  of,  burned  alive 
by  Hannibal,  458. 

Ambassadors  sent  to  Athens  to 
study  the  Greek  laws,  184. 

Ameriola,  taken  by  Tarquin,  46. 

Amulius,  son  of  Proca,  4  ;  drives  out 
Numitor  and  seizes  the  kingdom, 
4 ;  assassinated,  6. 

Amusicus,  chief  of  the  Ausetani,  es- 
capes to  Hasdrubal,  289. 

Anapus,  river  in  Sicily,  Himilco  en- 
camps at,  448. 

Ancilia,  shields  from  heaven,  24. 

Ancus  Marcius,  grandson  of  Numa 
Pompilius,  made  king,  38  ;  insti- 
tutes religious  and  other  rites,  38, 
39 ;  declares  war  on  the  Latins, 
40;  takes  Politorium,  40  ;  defeats 
the  Latins  at  Medullia,  40  ;  death 
of,  43- 

Andranodorus,  son-in-law  of  King 
Hiero  of  Syracuse,  guardian  of 
Hieronymus,  414,  432  ;  surren- 
ders the  keys  of  the  city,  434 ; 
killed  9,1  the  senate-house,  436. 


Anicius,  Marcus,  officer  of  the  Prae- 
nestean  citizens  at  Casilinum,  376. 

Anio,  river,  109. 

Anio,  tribe  of,  reproved  by  Fabius 
at  the  elections,  417. 

Annius,  Marcus,  land  commission- 
er, takes  refuge  at  Mutina,  255. 

Antenor,  a  Trojan,  founds  a  city  on 
the  Adriatic,  I. 

Antistius,  Marcus,  sent  as  envoy  to 
Flaminius  at  Placentia,  291. 

Antium,  city  of  the  Volscians,  no, 
145  ;  taken  from  the  Volscians  by 
Titus  Quinctius,  147  ;  colony  sent 
to,  149 ;  colonists  conspire  with 
the  Volscians  and  ^quans,  160. 

Antonius,  Titus,  Merenda,  elected 
into  the  second  college  of  decem- 
virs, 188. 

Apiolae,  taken  by  Tarquin,  44. 

Apollonides,  citizen  of  Syracuse,  ad- 
dresses the  mob,  439. 

Appius  Claudius     See  Claudius. 

Appolonia,  452. 

Apronius,  Gaius,  elected  tribune 
after  the  return  from  the  Sacred 
Mount,  209. 

Apulia,  302 ;  revolts  to  Hannibal, 
354- 

Apustius,  Lucius,  governor  of  Ta- 
rentum,  398. 

Aquilii,  conspirators  with  the  am- 
bassadors from  Tarquin,  75. 

Aquilius,  Gaius,  consul,  119;  de- 
feats the  Hernicans,  119. 

Arbocala,  a  town  of  the  Vaccaei,  238  ; 
stormed  by  Hannibal,  238. 

Archimedes,  his  inventions  used  in 
the  defence  of  Syracuse,  446. 

Ardanae,  in  Apulia,  Fabius  estab- 
lishes his  camp  at,  430. 

Ardea,  city  of  the  Rutulians,  66, 
note  ;  besieged  by  Lucius  Tar- 
quin, 67 ;  citizens  of,  defrauded 
by  the  Romans  in  a  dispute  with 
Aricia,  229—231. 

Argei,  25. 

Aricia,  89,  101  ;  in  dispute  with  Ar- 
dea, 229-231  ;  are  defrauded  by  the 
Roman  assembly,  229-231. 

Ariminium,  247  ;  Sempronius  ar- 
rives at,  280. 

Aristodemus,  tyrant,  96  ;  delays  the 
Roman  corn  ships  at  Cumae,  in. 

Aristomachus,  citizen  of  Croton,  his 
treachery,  412. 

Ariston,  a  tragic  actor,  gives  infor- 


INDEX 


465 


mation  of  the  plots  of  Andrano- 
dorus  and  Themistus,  436. 

Arpi,  305  ;  Hannibal  in  winter  quar- 
ters at,  406,  413 ;  taken  by  the 
Romans,  458-460. 

Arretium,  295. 

Arruns  Tarquin.     See  Tarquinius. 

Arsian  wood,  79. 

Ascanius,  son  of  ^Eneas,  3. 

Ascua,  Spanish  town,  384, 

Asellus,  Claudius,  his  contest  with 
Vibellius  Taurea,  406. 

Asina,  Cornelius,  255. 

Asylum,  established  by  Romulus, 
10. 

Atanagrum,  town  of  the  Ilergetes, 
289  ;  taken  by  Scipio,  289. 

Atellani,  revolt  to  Hannibal,  354. 

Atemnates,  n  ;  defeated  by  Romu- 
lus, 13. 

Aternius,  Aulus,  consul,  183 ;  pa- 
trician, elected  tribune  of  the  peo- 
ple, 222. 

Aternum,  taken  by  the  Romans,  460. 

Atilius,  Caius,  Serranus,  praetor,  re- 
enforces  Manlius  at  Tannetum, 
256  ;  candidate  for  the  consulship, 
328. 

Atilius,  Lucius,  quaestor,  killed  at 
Cannae,  341. 

Atilius,  Lucius,  escapes  with  the 
garrison  from  Locri,  411. 

Atilius,  Marcus,  Regulus,  consul, 
320,  333  ;  takes  over  the  command 
from  Fabius,  325  ;  finance  commis- 
sioner, 378  ;  censor,  421  ;  sum- 
moned to  trial  by  Metellus,  455  ; 
praetor,  456. 

Attus  Navius,  celebrated  soothsay- 
er, 44  ;  put  to  the  test  by  Tarquin, 
44  ;  statue  of,  44. 

Atys,  son  of  Alba,  4. 

Aufidus,  river,  336. 

Augustus,  Emperor  Caesar,  22. 

Aulus  Verginius.     See  Verginius. 

Aurelius,  Caius,  372. 

Aurelius,  Marcus,  Cotta,  aedile,  388. 

Aurinx,  Spanish  town,  455. 

Auruncans,  91  ;  attack  and  burn  the 
Roman  camp  at  Pometia,  92  ;  de- 
feated at  Aricia,  101. 

Ausetani,  a  Spanish  tribe,  reduced 
by  Hannibal,  254  ;  surrender  to 
Scipio,  289. 

Austicula,  398. 

Aventinus,  King,  4  ;  gives  name  to 
Aventine  Hill,  4. 
30 


Aventine,  14,  24  ;  assigned  to  the 
Latins,  40 ;  the  army  under  Ver- 
ginius occupy  the,  204. 

Avernus,  Lake  of,  Hannibal  at,  422, 
431. 

Baebius,  Quintus,  Tamphilus,  envoy 
to  Hannibal  and  to  Carthage,  240  ; 
sent  away  by  Hannibal,  242  ;  at 
Carthage,  242-244  ;  returns  to 
Rome,  248  ;  member  of  second 
embassy  to  Carthage,  249 ;  in 
Spain  and  Gaul,  251  ;  returns 
home,  252. 

Baebius,  Quintus,  Herennius,  trib- 
une, canvasses  for  Terentius  and 
inveighs  against  Fabius,  327. 

Balearic  Islands,  envoys  sent  from 
the,  to  Scipio  to  sue  for  peace, 
314  ;  Carthaginian  fleet  under 
Hasdrubal  wrecked  at  the,  394. 

Bantius,  Lucius,  citizen  of  Nola, 
won  over  to  the  Roman  side  by 
the  kindness  of  Marcellus,  370. 

Barcine  faction,  political  party  in 
Carthage,  235,  236,  366. 

Bargusii,  a  Spanish  tribe  favour- 
able to  Rome,  251  ;  reduced  by 
Hannibal,  254. 

Bassus,  Herennius,  citizen  of  Nola, 
his  answer  to  Hanno,  403. 

Beneventum,  306  ;  Gracchus  defeats 
Hanno's  army  at,  423-425. 

Bibaculus,  Furius,  341. 

Bibulus,  Publicius,  tribune  of  the 
soldiers,  344. 

Bigerra,  Spanish  town,  454. 

Blaesus,  Sempronius,  quaestor,  killed 
in  Africa,  324. 

Blanda,  town  in  Lucania,  stormed 
by  Fabius,  430. 

Blossius,  Marius,  chief  magistrate 
of  Campania,  361. 

Boii,  Gallic  tribe,  revolt  on  hearing 
of  Hannibal's  passage  of  the  Ebro, 
255  ;  besiege  Mutina,  255  ;  offer 
to  guide  Hannibal  over  the  Alps, 
260 ;  defeat  the  army  of  Lucius 
Postumius  in  Gaul,  381. 

Bomilcar,  commander  of  the  Car- 
thaginian fleet,  lands  at  Locri 
with  re-enforcements  for  Hanni- 
bal. 400 ;  with  a  Carthaginian 
fleet  at  Syracuse,  448  ;  withdraws 
with  his  fleet  to  Africa,  448. 

Bostar,  Carthaginian  governor  of 
Saguntum,  315,  316. 


466 


LIVY'S   ROMAN    HISTORY 


Bostar,  envoy  from  Hannibal  to 
Philip,  392 ;  taken  prisoner  by 
the  Roman  fleet,  393. 

Bovianum,  a  town  in  Samnium,  318. 

Brancus,  king  of  the  Allobroges, 
reinstated  by  Hannibal,  261. 

Bridge  across  the  Tiber,  first  built,  4. 

Brixian  Gauls  aid  the  Romans,  256. 

Brundisinus,  Dasius,  gives  up  Clas- 
tidium  to  Hannibal,  277. 

Brundisium,  392. 

Bruttii,  revolt  to  Hannibal,  354. 

Bruttians  aid  Hannibal  against  the 
Greek  cities,  410,  411. 

Brutus,  Lucius  Junius,  son  of  Tar- 
quinia,  66  ;  accompanies  the  Tar- 
quinii  to  Delphi,  66 ;  makes  an 
offering  to  Apollo,  66  ;  his  inter- 
pretation of  the  oracle,  66  ;  leads 
the  relatives  of  Lucretia  to  Rome 
and  incites  a  revolution,  69,  70  ; 
is  welcomed  in  the  camp,  70 ; 
elected  consul,  71  ;  institutes  the 
order  of  conscripti  in  the  senate, 
73  ;  binds  the  people  by  an  oath 
not  to  suffer  kings,  73  ;  banishes 
the  Tarquinii  from  Rome,  74  ;  pun- 
ishes the  conspirators,  including 
his  two  sons,  with  death  for  trea- 
son, 77  ;  death  of,  79. 

Busa,  an  Apulian  lady  at  Canu- 
sium,  supplies  the  Roman  refu- 
gees with  aid  after  Cannae,  343. 

Cadiz.     See  Gades. 

Caecilius,  Lucius,  Metellus,  advises 
the  abandonment  of  Italy  after  the 
battle  of  Cannae,  344  ;  ordered  to 
trial,  427  ;  summons  the  censors 
while  tribune,  355  ;  pontiff,  378. 

Caedicius,  Lucius,  tribune,  135. 

Caenina,  city  of  the  Caeninenses, 
taken  by  Romulus,  12. 

Caeninenses  assemble  to  view  the 
games,  n  ;  make,  war  on  Rome, 
12  ;  are  defeated  and  cut  to  pieces 
by  Romulus,  12  ;  king  of  the, 
killed  by  Romulus,  12. 

Caere,  an  Etruscan  town,  2,  70. 

Caeso  Quinctius.     See  Quinctius. 

Caiatia,  369. 

Calatini,  revolt  to  Hannibal,  354. 

Calavius,  Pacuvius,  gives  over 
Capua  to  Hannibal,  356-360  ; 
banqueted  by  Hannibal,  362. 

Calavius,  young  son  of  Pacuvius, 
plots  to  take  Hannibal's  life,  362. 


Cales,  307. 

Calendar,  as  appointed  by  Numa, 
23,  note. 

Callifae,  town  in  Samnium,  307. 

Caloris,  river,  423. 

Calpurnius,  Caius,  taken  prisoner 
at  Cannae,  envoy  to  Rome  in  be- 
half of  the  prisoners,  353. 

Calpurnius,  Marcus,  Flamma,  351. 

Calvus.     See  Hasdrubal. 

Camenae,  25. 

Cameria,  taken  by  Tarquin,  46. 

Camillus,  conqueror  of  the  Gauls, 
308. 

Campania,    ravaged    by   Hannibal, 

307. 

Campanians,  revolt  to  Hannibal, 
terms  of  the  surrender  of  Capua, 
360,  361  ;  send  envoys  to  the  Ro- 
mans, 358. 

Campus  Martius,  52,  76. 

Cannae,  336  ;  Roman  defeat  at, 
337-341  ;  compared  with  the  dis- 
aster at  the  Allia,  341  ;  report  of 
the  battle  at  Rome,  345  ;  com- 
pared with  other  Roman  and  Car- 
thaginian defeats,  345  ;  news  of, 
received  at  Carthage,  365. 

Canusium,  escape  from  the  Roman 
camp  to,  after  Cannae,  342  ;  refu- 
gees make  their  way  to,  343. 

Capena  Gate,  390. 

Capetus,  son  of  Capys,  King  of 
Rome,  4. 

Capitol,  seized  by  exiles  and  slaves 
under  Appius  Herdonius,  165  ; 
recovered  by  Valerius,  aided  by 
the  Tusculans,  169. 

Capitolinus.     See  Quinctius. 

Capua,  306 ;  put  into  Hannibal's 
hands  by  Pacuvius  Calavius,  356- 
360  ;  Hannibal  in  winter  quarters 
at,  and  his  army  demoralized,  375. 

Capys,  son  of  Atys,  4. 

Carales,  in  Sardinia,  399. 

Carmenta,  a  prophetess,  mother  of 
Evander,  8. 

Carmental  Gate,  131. 

Carpetani,  a  Spanish  tribe,  238  ;  at- 
tack Hannibal,  239  ;  are  defeated 
and  their  country  laid  waste,  239  ; 
infantry  of,  desert  Hannibal,  254. 

Cartala,  a  city  of  the  Olcades,  238  ; 
taken  and  plundered  by  Hanni- 
bal, 238. 

Carthage,  greatness  of  the  war  be- 
tween Rome  and,  232 ;  envoys 


INDEX 


467 


sent  from  Rome  to,  240 ;  second 
embassy  from  Rome  declare  war 
upon,  249,  250  ;  news  of  the  vic- 
tory at  Cannae  received  at,  365  ; 
receives  news  of  Spanish  losses, 

391- 

Carthage,  New,  Hannibal  takes  up 
winter  quarters  in,  238,  252  ; 
country  around  ravaged  by  Cn. 
Scipio,  312  ;  invaded  by  the  Celti- 
beri,  314. 

Carthalo,  Carthaginian  cavalry  com- 
mander, 309. 

Carthalo,  a  Carthaginian  noble,  ac- 
companies the  envoys  of  the  pris- 
oners to  Rome,  348. 

Carvilius,  Spurius,  proposes  that 
senators  be  chosen  from  among 
the  allies,  379. 

Casilinum,  guide  leads  Hannibal 
to,  by  mistake,  306  ;  Hannibal  be- 
sieges, 373  ;  horrors  of  the  siege 
at,  375  ;  surrenders  to  Hannibal, 
376  ;  taken  by  Fabius  and  Mar- 
cellus,  429  ;  Quintus  Fabius  in 
camp  at,  429. 

Casinum,  town  in  Latium,  con- 
founded with  Casilinum  by  Han- 
nibal's guide,  306. 

Cassius,  Spurius,  consul,  92,  no, 
119  ;  appointed  master  of  the 
horse,  93  ;  concludes  a  treaty  with 
the  Latins,  in  ;  condemned  and 
put  to  death,  120. 

Castulo,  pass  of,  occupied  by  Scipio 
and  his  army,  314  ;  Spanish  town, 
revolts  to  Rome,  454. 

Castor,  Temple  of,  dedicated,  121. 

Caudium,  in  Samnium,  ravaged  by 
Marcellus,  401  ;  and  by  the  praetor 
Fabius,  430. 

Caudine  Forks,  308. 

Celeres,  body-guard  of  Romulus,  18. 

Celtiberi,  Spanish  tribe,  285 ;  in- 
vade province  of  New  Carthage 
and  are  victorious,  314  ;  employed 
as  mercenaries  by  Rome,  462. 

Cenomani,  Gallic  tribe  loyal  to 
Rome,  283. 

Census,  established  by  Servius,  50. 

Centenius.  Caius,  the  pro-praetor, 
his  command  surrounded  and 
taken  prisoners  in  Umbria,  301. 

Cercina,  324. 

Ceres,  consular  decrees  first  depos- 
ited at  the  temple  of,  211  ;  fes- 
tival of,  not  celebrated,  on  ac- 


count of  severe  loss  at  Cannae, 
346. 

Chalbus,  chief  of  the  Tartesii,  383. 

Cincinnatus.     See  Quinctius. 

Cincius,  Lucius,  Alimentus,  Roman 
historian,  taken  prisoner  by  Han- 
nibal, 267. 

Circe,  the  goddess,  58. 

Circeii,  colonists  sent  to,  65,  note  ; 
taken  by  the  Volscians,  116. 

Circus  Maximus,  established  by 
Tarquin,  44. 

Cisalpine  Gaul  revolts  to  Hanni- 
.bal,  354. 

Cissus,  Spanish  town,  scene  of  the 
defeat  of  Hanno  by  Scipio,  288. 

Clastidium,  delivered  over  to  Han- 
nibal, 277. 

Claudian  tribe,  origin  of,  91. 

Claudius,  Appius,  founder  of  the 
Claudian  tribe,  91  ;  consul,  96 ; 
his  conduct  toward  the  debtors, 
98  ;  with  Servilius  resigns  the  con- 
sulship, 103  ;  advises  the  senate 
concerning  the  debtors,  105. 

Claudius,  Appius,  son  of  Appius, 
elected  consul,  139 ;  sent  against 
the  Volscians,  141  ;  his  severity 
with  the  army,  141  ;  retreat  of  the 
army  under,  142 ;  trial  ordered 
and  postponed,  144 ;  dies,  144. 

Claudius,  Appius,  the  decemvir, 
elected  to  the  first  college  of  de- 
cemvirs, 185  ;  canvasses  for  re- 
election, 187,  188 ;  seizes  Ver- 
ginia,  197  ;  and  condemns  her  to 
slavery,  201  ;  flees  from  the  fo- 
rum, 203  ;  brought  to  trial  by 
Verginius,  211  ;  appeals  to  the 
people  but  is  cast  into  prison, 
212,  213  ;  takes  his  life  the  day 
before  his  trial,  214. 

Claudius,  Appius,  Pulcher,  tribune 
of  the  soldiers,  344  ;  praetor,  381. 

Claudius  Asellus.     See  Asellus. 

Claudius,  Caius,  Cento,  interrex, 
326. 

Claudius,  Caius,  Nero,  at  Nola  fails 
in  an  attempt  to  attack  Hanni- 
bal's rear,  427. 

Claudius,  Gaius,  son  of  Appius, 
consul,  165  ;  appeals  to  the  citi- 
zens in  behalf  of  his  brother  Ap- 
pius Claudius,  214. 

Claudius,  Gaius,  uncle  of  Appius 
the  decemvir,  addresses  the  sen- 
ate, 193. 


468 


LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY 


Claudius,   Marcus, l  a  dependant  of 

Appius,  the  claimant  of  Verginia, 

197-202 ;    condemned,    goes    into 

exile  at  Tibur,  215. 
Claudius,  Marcus,  Marcellus,  aedile, 

388. 
Claudius,    Quintus,   a  tribune,  bill 

introduced  by,  290,  291. 
Clausus,    Attus,    91.     See    Appius 

Claudius. 
Clcelia,  exploit  of,  88  ;  rewarded  by 

the  state,  88. 
Clcelii,      Alban       family     enrolled 

among  the  patricians  by  Tullus, 

36. 

Cloelius,  Quintus,  consul,  96. 
Clcelius,  Gracchus,  chief  man  among 

the  ^Equans,  leads  a  hostile  army 

into  Roman  territory,  177. 
Cluilian  trench,  26. 
Cluilius,  Gaius,   King  of  Alba,  25  ; 

dies  in  his  camp,  26. 
Clusium,  Etruscan  town,  81,  82. 
Ccelian  Mount,  added   to  the  city, 

36  ;  palace  of  Tullus,  on  the,  36. 
Ccelius,  ancient  historian,  325. 
Collatia,    taken    from   the  Sabines, 

46  ;  home  of  Lucretia,  67. 
Collatinus    Tarquinius.     See    Tar- 

quinius. 

Colline  gate,  85,  86. 
Combulteria,  398. 
Cominius,    Postumus,    consul,   92, 

no. 
Commons,    secede    to    the    Sacred 

Mount,  109. 

Compsa,  town  in  Samnium,  surren- 
dered to  Hannibal,  355  ;  stormed 

by  Fabius,  430. 
Concord,  Temple  of,  contracted  for, 

326. 
Conscripti,    introduced   by  Brutus, 

73- 

Consentia,  taken  by  the  Cartha- 
ginians, 387. 

Considius,  Quintus,  tribune,  ap- 
points day  of  trial  for  Menenius, 

134- 
Consualia,    games    in     honour    of 

Neptunus    Equester,    established 

by  Romulus,  n. 
Consuls,   first  elected,    71  ;    elected 

after   the  resignation  of  the   de- 
cemvirs, 209,  210,  note. 
Contracts  for  supplying  the  army 

taken  by  private  citizens  in  Rome, 

408. 


Cora,  91,  97. 

Corbio,  taken  by  the  Volscians,  117  ; 
evacuated  by  the  ^Equans,  181  ; 
attack  on  the  garrison  at,  by  the 
JEquans,  182  ;  razed  by  the  con- 
sul Horatius,  183. 
Corioli,  attacked,  no;  taken,  in; 

taken  by  the  Volscians,  116. 
Cornelius,   Aulus,    Mammula,   pro- 
praetor of  Sardinia,  378,  391. 
Cornelius,  Aulus,  quaestor,  appoints 
day  of  trial  for  Marcus  Volscius, 
176. 
Cornelius,  Cneius,  Lentulus,  at  the 

battle  of  Cannae,  340. 
Cornelius,  Cneius,  Scipio,  sent  by 
his  brother  into  Spain,   262  ;  ar- 
rives with  his  army  at  Emporiae, 
288  ;  defeats  Hanno  and  takes  the 
Carthaginian  camp,  288  ;  defeats 
the  entire  Carthaginian  fleet  near 
the  Ebro,  313  ;  takes  Onusa,  New 
Carthage,  Longuntica,  and  Ebu- 
sus,  314  ;  wounded  at  Munda,  454. 
Cornelius,  Lucius,  brother  of  Mar- 
cus Cornelius,  the  decemvir,  ad- 
dresses the  senate,  193. 
Cornelius,  Lucius,   Lentulus,  chief 
pontiff,  consults  the  people  con- 
cerning the  keeping  of  the  "  holy- 
spring,"  303. 
Cornelius,    Lucius,     Maluginensis, 

consul,  173. 

Cornelius,  Marcus,  elected  into  the 
second  college  of  decemvirs,  188. 
Cornelius,    Publius,    Asina,    inter- 
rex,  327. 

Cornelius,  Publius,  Lentulus,  prae- 
tor, 419. 

Cornelius,  Publius,  Merenda,  can- 
didate for  the  consulship,  328. 
Cornelius,  Publius,  Scipio,  consul, 
240,  247  ;  Spain  assigned  to,  248  ; 
sails  from  Rome,  256  ;  arrives  at 
Massilia,  256 ;  sends  out  recon- 
noitring party  along  the  Rhone, 
257  >  goes  with  his  army  to  Ge- 
noa, 262  ;  arrives  at  Placentia, 
268  ;  addresses  his  soldiers,  268  ; 
moves  his  camp  to  the  river  Tre- 
bia,  276  ;  lands  with  his  army  in 
Spain,  315. 

Cornelius,  Publius,  Scipio,  tribune 
of    the    soldiers,    344 ;    assigned 
supreme  command  at  Canusium, 
after  Cannae,  344. 
Cornelius,  Servius,  consul,  120. 


INDEX 


469 


Cornelius,  Servius,  Flamen  Quiri- 
nalis,  dies  of  the  plague,  184. 

Corniculum,  taken  by  Tarquin,  46. 

Cornus,  town  in  Sardinia,  399. 

Corsi,  248. 

Corsica,  324,  394. 

Cossus,  A.  Cornelius,  13. 

Cremera,  river,  scene  of  the  defeat 
and  destruction  of  the  Fabii  by 
the  Veientines,  131. 

Cremona,  Roman  colony,  the  Ro- 
man army  in,  after  the  defeat  at 
the  Trebia,  285. 

Creusa,  wife  of  ^Eneas  before  the 
fall  of  Troy,  3. 

Crispinus,  Quintus,  452. 

Crito,  of  Boeotia,  envoy  sent  by 
Philip  to  Hannibal,  398. 

Croton,  Greek  town  in  Bruttium, 
revolts  to  Hannibal,  354  ;  taken 
by  the  Bruttians  and  Carthagin- 
ians, 387  ;  attacked  by  the  Brut- 
tians, 411,  412  ;  description  of  the 
city,  412  ;  citizens  abandon  and  go 
to  Locri,  413. 

Crustumerium,  taken  by  Tarquin, 
46. 

Crustumini,  assemble  to  view  the 
games,  n  ;  make  war  on  Rome,  13  ; 
are  defeated  by  Romulus,  13. 

Cumae,  Grecian  colony  at,  8,  note, 
891  96,  394  ;  besieged  by  Hanni- 
bal, 396  ;  the  siege  raised,  397. 

Cures,  a  Sabine  city,  home  of  Numa 
Pompilius,  21. 

Curia  Hostilia,  senate-house  built 
by  Tullus,  36,  note. 

Curiatii,  Horatii  and,  tradition  of, 
27-30. 

Curiatii,  Alban  family  enrolled 
among  the  patricians  by  Tullus, 
36. 

Curiatius,  Publius,  consul,  184  ; 
elected  to  the  first  college  of  de- 
cemvirs, 185. 

Curtius,  Lacus,  so  called,  16,  note. 

Curtius,  Mettius,  leader  of  the  Sa- 
bines,  14. 

Curule  chair.  107,  note, 

Cyprian  street,  57. 

Cyrenae,  365. 

Damarata,  daughter  of  Hiero,  wife 
of  Andranodorus  of  Syracuse,  433  ; 
executed  by  order  of  the  Syracu- 
san  mob,  437. 

Darius,  63,  note. 


Dasius  Altinus.     See  Altinus. 

Debtors,  insurrection  of  the,  97-99. 

Decemvirs,  first  elected,  185  ;  draw 
up  the  ten  tables,  186  ;  seek  re- 
appointment,  186,  187 ;  assume 
the  lictors  and  authority  of  ten 
kings,  188  ;  summon  the  senate, 
190 ;  lead  the  armies  against  the 
Sabines  and  ytquans,  195  ,  resign 
their  office  upon  a  decree  of  the 
senate,  208  ;  go  into  exile,  215. 

Decimus.     See  Numerius. 

Decius  Magius.     See  Magius. 

Decius,  Publius,  Mus,  his  valour  in 
the  Samnite  war,  351,  419. 

Delphi,  oracle  at,  consulted  by  the 
Tarquinii,  65 ;  consulted  after 
Cannae,  347. 

Demaratus,  a  Corinthian,  father  of 
Tarquin,  41. 

Demetrius,  of  Pharos,  his  extradi- 
tion demanded  from  Philip  of 
Macedon,  326. 

Diana,  Temple  of,  at  Ephesus,  53  ; 
at  Rome,  53,  57. 

Dictator,  first  appointed,  93. 

Diomenes,  conspirator  against  Hie- 
ronymus,  416 ;  elected  praetor  of 
Syracuse,  434. 

Dionysius,  tyrant  of  Sicily,  his  cap- 
ture of  the  citadel  of  Croton  by 
stratagem,  413  ;  quoted  by  Dama- 
rata, 433. 

Druentia,  river,  the  modern  Durance, 
Hannibal  crosses  the,  261,  262. 

Ducarius,  an  Insubrian  trooper,  kills 
the  consul  Flaminiusat  the  bat- 
tle of  Lake  Trasumennus,  299. 

Duellius,  Marcus,  tribune,  141  ;  ap- 
points a  day  of  trial  for  Appius 
Claudius,  143. 

Duilius,  Caeso,  elected  into  the  sec- 
ond college  of  decemvirs,  188. 

Duillius,  Marcus,  leads  the  people 
from  the  Aventine  to  the  Sacred 
Mount,  206  ;  elected  tribune  after 
the  return  from  the  Sacred  Mount, 
209 ;  orders  a  cessation  of  public 
trials  for  one  year,  215;  success- 
fully blocks  the  re-election  of  the 
tribunes,  221,  222. 

Ebro,  river,  boundary  between  Ro- 
man and  Carthaginian  territory 
in  Spain,  236. 

Ebusus,  Island  of,  taken  by  Cn. 
Scipio  and  the  Roman  fleet,  314. 


470 


LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY 


Egeria,  goddess,  consulted  by  Nu- 
ma,  22,  25. 

Egerius,  nephew  of  Tarquinius  Pris- 
cus,  41  ;  left  in  command  at  Col- 
latia,  46. 

Emporise,  city  in  Spain,  288  ;  Cneius 
Cornelius  Scipio  arrives  at,  with 
his  army,  288. 

Emporium,  attacked  by  Hannibal, 
285  ;  Hannibal  wounded  at,  285. 

Eneti  (Veneti),  a  nation  of  north- 
eastern Italy,  i  ;  driven  from 
Paphlagonia,  2. 

Enna,  scene  of  the  legend  of  the 
Rape  of  Proserpine,  449-451  ;  mas- 
sacre of  the  citizens  of,  by  the  Ro- 
man garrison  under  Lucius  Pina- 
rius,  449-451. 

Epicycles,  envoy  sent  by  Hannibal 
to  Syracuse,  415  ;  elected  praetor 
at  Syracuse,  439 :  with  Hippoc- 
rates, takes  possession  of  Syra- 
cuse, <\/\/\  ;  directs  the  defence  of 
Syracuse,  445. 

Erbesus.     See  Herbessus. 

Eryx,  mountain  in  Sicily,  scene  of 
Carthaginian  defeat  in  first  Punic 
war,  243,  270 ;  Venus  of,  temple 
to,  vowed,  304 ;  dedicated  by  Fa- 
bius  Maximus,  389. 

Esparto  grass,  314. 

Esquiline,  22  ;  enlarged  by  Servius, 
52 ;  meetings  of  the  commons 
held  on  the,  103. 

Esquiline  gate,  85  ,223. 

Etruscans,  aid  Turnus,  2 ;  battle 
with,  78  ;  defeated  at  Aricia,  89  ; 
defeat  the  consul  Menenius,  133. 

Euganei,  driven  out  by  Eneti  and 
Trojans,  i. 

Evander,  an  Acadian,  5  ;  introduces 
writing  into  Italy,  8. 

Fabii,  wounded  distributed  among 
the,  129  ;  the,  undertake  the  Veien- 
tine  war  as  a  family  struggle,  130  ; 
set  out  from  Rome  by  the  Car- 
mental  gate,  131  ;  arrive  at  the 
river  Cremera,  131  ;  devastate  the 
enemy's  country,  131  ;  are  am- 
bushed and  cut  to  pieces  by  the 
Veientines,  133. 

Fabius,  Caeso,  quaestor,  120,  note  ; 
consul,  121  ;  defeats  the  -(Equans 
and  Volscians,  121;  consul,  122, 
129. 

Fabius,   Marcus,  brother  of  Caeso, 


consul,  121,  123 ;  refuses  a  tri- 
umph, 128. 

Fabius,  Marcus,  Buteo,  appointed 
dictator  to  revise  the  senatorial 
roll,  379. 

Fabius,  Quintus,  consul,  120,  122  ; 
death  of,  127. 

Fabius,  Quintus,  Flaccus,  pontiff, 
378. 

Fabius,  Quintus,  Maximus,  envoy 
to  Carthage,  249  ;  declares  war  in 
the  Carthaginian  senate,  250  ;  in 
Spain  and  Gaul,  251  ;  returns  to 
Rome,  252;  made  dictator,  302;  or- 
ders the  Sacred  Books  consulted, 
302 ;  mutiny  in  his  camp  headed 
by  Minucius,  307  ;  forced  to  share 
the  command  with  Minucius,  320  ; 
comes  to  the  rescue  of  Minucius, 
321-323  ;  receives  Minucius  back 
into  his  camp,  323  ;  gives  over  the 
command  to  Servilius  and  Atilius, 
325  ;  reproves  Terentius  and  ad- 
vises ^Emilius  on  their  setting  out 
from  the  city,  331  ;  pontiff,  378  ; 
dedicates  the  Temple  of  Venus  of 
Eryx,  389  ;  consul  third  time,  390  ; 
consul  fourth  time,  419. 

Fabius  Maximus,  son  of  Q.  Fabius 
Maximus,  tribune  of  the  soldiers, 
344  ;  curule  sedile,  419  ;  encamped 
at  Casilinum,  429  ;  takes  Casili- 
num,  429  ;  ravages  the  Samnite 
territory  and  takes  many  towns, 
430  ;  elected  consul,  455. 

Fabius,  Quintus,  Pictor,  Roman  his- 
torian contemporary  with  second 
Punic  war,  52,  65,  119  ;  sent  to 
the  oracle  at  Delphi  after  the  bat- 
tle of  Cannae,  347  ;  returns,  365. 

Fabius,  Quintus,  Vibulanus,  sole 
survivor  of  the  family  after  their 
defeat  at  Cremera,  elected  consul, 
148  ;  sends  colony  to  Antium, 
149 ;  consul,  149  ;  defeats  the 
^Equans,  150,  151  ;  prefect  of  the 
city,  opposes  the  Terentilian  law, 
158,  159 ;  consul,  173  ;  marches 
against  Antium,  defeats  the  Vol- 
scians and  takes  their  camp,  174  ; 
goes  to  the  aid  of  Tusculum,  175  ; 
ambassador  to  the  ^Equans  at  Al- 
gidum,  177  ;  elected  into  the  sec- 
ond college  of  decemvirs,  188  ; 
his  degeneracy  commented  upon, 

195. 
Faesulae,  296. 


INDEX 


471 


Faith,  festival  to,  instituted  by  Nu- 
ma,  25. 

Falernian  plain,  307. 

Famine  at  Rome,  in. 

Faustulus,  a  shepherd,  finds  Romu- 
lus and  Remus,  5. 

Ferentia,  the  grove  of,  58  ;  spring 
of,  60. 

Feronia,  Temple  of,  36. 

Ficana,  capture  of,  40. 

Ficulae,  taken  by  Tarquin,  46. 

Ficulean  Way,  206. 

Fidenae,  city,  17,  note. 

Fidenates,  a  Roman  colony,  32  ;  re- 
volts, 32  ;  defeated  by  Tullus,  33. 

Fire  at  Rome,  464. 

Flaccus,  Valerius,  lieutenant,  with 
Marcellus  at  Nola,  372. 

Flaminian  Meadows,  209 ;  Circus, 
209 ;  Road,  306. 

Flatninius,  Caius,  elected  consul, 
285  ;  enters  on  his  consulship  in 
his  absence  against  the  will  of  the 
senators,  and  the  auspices,  291  ; 
his  rashness,  297  ;  he  is  entrapped 
and  defeated  by  Hannibal  at  Lake 
Trasumennus,  297-300 ;  killed  at 
the  battle  of  Lake  Trasumennus, 
299. 

Flamma,  Marcus  Calpurnius.  (See 
Calpurnius.) 

Flavoleius,  Marcus,  a  centurion, 
swears  to  return  victorious,  126. 

Fufetius,  Mettius,  dictator  of  the 
Albans,  26. 

Fugifulae,  town  in  Samnium, 
stormed  by  Fabius,  430. 

Fulvius,  Caius,  Roman  quaestor, 
taken  prisoner  by  Hannibal,  287. 

Fulvius,  Cneius,  Centumalus,  prae- 
tor, 456. 

Fulvius,  Quintus,  Flaccus,  praetor, 
381  ;  re-elected,  419. 

Furius,  Agrippa,  consul,  223  ;  with 
Capitolinus,  defeats  the  jEquans 
at  Corbio,  227-229. 

Furius,  lieutenant,  brother  of  Spu- 
rius  Furius,  killed,  153. 

Furius,  Lucius,  consul,  136  ;  brought 
to  trial  by  the  tribune  Genucius, 
136. 

Furius,  Lucius,  praetor,  wounded, 
37.8. 

Furius,  Marcus,  308. 

Furius,  Publius,  consul,  138 ;  tri- 
umvir for  distributing  the  land  at 
Antium,  149. 


Furius,  Publius,  Philo,  praetor,  328, 
344 ;  summons  the  senate  after 
Cannae,  345  ;  censor,  421  ;  sum- 
moned to  trial  by  Metellus,  455  ; 
his  death  while  augur,  455. 

Furius,  Quintus,  chief  pontiff,  holds 
the  election  of  tribunes  at  the 
Aventine,  209. 

Furius,  Sextus,  consul,  117,  122. 

Furius,  Spurius,  Fusus,  consul,  151  ; 
defeated  and  besieged  by  the 
^Equans,  152  ;  wounded,  153  ;  de- 
fends Caeso,  162. 

Gabii,  a  city  near  Rome,  61  ;  Tar- 
quin attempts  to  take  it  and  is  re- 
pulsed, 61  ;  stratagem  of  Sextus 
Tarquin  against,  62-64. 

"Gabii  of  the  Pool,"  61,  note. 

Gabinian  road,  155. 

Gades,  modern  Cadiz,  253  ;  Hanni- 
bal goes  to  pay  a  vow  to  Mel- 
karth  at,  253. 

Gaetulians,  374. 

Gaius  Cluilius,  King  of  Alba,  25  ; 
dies  in  his  camp,  26. 

Gala,  king  of  the  Massyli,  father  of 
Masinissa,  461. 

Gauls,  their  attitude  toward  Rome 
at  the  beginning  of  the  second 
Punic  war,  248  ;  their  answer  to 
the  Roman  ambassadors,  251  ; 
gather  at  Ruscino  to  oppose  Han- 
nibal, 255  ;  attack  Manlius,  256 ; 
two  thousand  desert  to  Hanni- 
bal, 276  ;  revolt  to  Hannibal, 
354  ;  Cisalpine,  destroy  a  Roman 
army  in  the  forest  called  Litana, 
381. 

Geganii,  Alban  family  enrolled 
among  the  patricians  by  Tullus, 
36. 

Geganius,  Marcus,  Macerinus,  con- 
sul, 222. 

Geganius,  Titus,  elected  consul, 
in. 

Gelon,  son  of  Hiero,  revolts  to  the 
Carthaginians,  388 ;  his  mysteri- 
ous death,  388. 

Genua,  modern  Genoa,  262. 

Genucius,  Gnaeus,  tribune,  136  ; 
tries  Furius  and  Manlius,  136 ; 
murder  of,  137. 

Genucius,  Titus,  elected  to  the  first 
college  of  decemvirs,  185. 

Genucius,  Titus,  tribune,  appoints 
day  of  trial  for  Menenius,  134. 


472 


LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY 


Gereonium,   town   in  Apulia,   311  ; 

fortified  as  a  base  of  supplies  by 

Hannibal,  311,  317. 
Geryon,  slain  by  Hercules,  7. 
Gisgo,    envoy    from    Hannibal    to 

Philip,  392  ;  taken  prisoner  by  the 

Roman  fleet,  393. 
Gnaeus  Marcius.     See  Marcius. 
Goat's  Pool,  the,  18. 
Gracchus,  Titus   Sempronius.     See 

Sempronius. 
Great  Games,  44. 
Grumentum,    in    Lucania,    Roman 

success  at,  397. 

Hadria,  district  of,  Hannibal  in  the, 
302. 

Hamse,  394  ;  Campanian  camp  at, 
taken  by  Gracchus,  395. 

Hamilcar  Barca,  father  of  Hanni- 
bal, 235  ;  his  plans  at  the  time  of 
his  death,  235  ;  his  death  at  White 
Camp  in  Spain,  453. 

Hamilcar,  son  of  Bomilcar,  his  op- 
erations against  the  Greek  cities, 
410. 

Hamilcar,  son  of  Gisgo,  surrenders 
Melita  to  the  consul  Semproni- 
us, 279. 

Hampsicora,  citizen  of  Sardinia, 
391  ;  kills  himself,  400. 

Hannibal,  as  a  child  swears  enmity 
to  Rome,  235  ;  succeeds  Hasdru- 
bal  in  Spain,  236  ;  his  character, 
237 ;  early  operations  in  Spain, 
238-240  ;  attacks  Saguntum,  240  ; 
wounded  at  Saguntum,  241  ;  takes 
Saguntum,  247  ;  in  winter  quar- 
ters at  New  Carthage,  252 ;  as- 
signs the  army,  253  ;  has  a  pro- 
pitious vision,  254 ;  crosses  the 
Ebro,  254 ;  encamps  at  Iliberri, 
255  ;  reaches  the  territory  of  the 
Volcae,  257  ;  defeats  the  Volcae 
and  crosses  the  Rhone,  258,  259  ; 
addresses  his  soldiers  after  the 
crossing  of  the  Rhone,  260  ;  set- 
tles a  revolution  among  the  Allo- 
broges,  261  ;  crosses  the  Alps, 
262-268  ;  addresses  his  soldiers  at 
the  Ticinus,  271  ;  victorious  at 
the  Ticinus,  275  ;  bribes  the  gar- 
rison of  Clastidium  to  surrender, 
277  ;  defeats  the  consular  armies 
under  Sempronius  at  the  river 
Trebia,  282-284 ',  wounded  in  the 
attack  on  Emporium,  285 ;  at- 


tempts to  cross  the  Apennines 
but  is  driven  back  by  storms,  286  ; 
plots  against  his  life,  293  ;  crosses 
the  marshes  of  the  Arno,  295  ;  and 
loses  one  of  his  eyes,  296  ;  en- 
traps and  defeats  the  Roman  army 
under  Flaminius  at  the  Lake  Tra- 
sumennus,  297-300  ;  escapes  Fabi- 
us  by  a  stratagem,  310,  311  ;  sets  a 
trap  for  Minucius,  who  is  rescued 
by  Fabius  on  the  point  of  defeat, 
321-323  ;  fails  in  his  attempt  to 
entrap  ^Emilius  and  Terentius, 
334)  335  I  moves  his  army  to  Can- 
nx,  336  ;  his  complete  defeat  of 
the  Roman  armies  under  jEmilius 
and  Terentius,  337-341  ;  his  un- 
successful advance  on  Naples, 
355  ;  enters  Capua,  361 ;  defeated 
at  Nola  by  Marcellus,  371,  372  ; 
besieges  Casilinum,  373  ;  his  army 
in  winter  quarters  at  Capua,  375  ; 
invests  Nola,  403 ;  defeated  at 
Nola  by  Marcellus,  404,  405  ;  is 
repulsed  at  his  camp  before  Nola 
by  Marcellus,  427  ;  advances  with 
his  army  to  Tarentum,  430  ;  in 
winter  quarters  at  Salapia,  431. 

Hannibal,  a  Carthaginian  noble, 
sent  by  Hannibal  as  an  envoy  to 
Syracuse,  415. 

Hanno,  leader  of  the  oligarchy  at 
Carthage,  opposes  Hannibal's  be- 
ing sent  to  Spain,  236  ;  pleads  for 
the  treaty  in  the  Carthaginian 
senate,  242-244  ;  in  favour  of 
peace  after  the  battle  of  Cannae, 

367- 

Hanno,  left  in  charge  of  the  passes 
of  the  Pyrenees,  254  ;  defeated  by 
Cneius  Cornelius  Scipio  and  taken 
prisoner,  288. 

Hanno,  son  of  Bomilcar,  his  serv- 
ices at  the  passage  of  the  Rhone, 
258. 

Hanno,  Carthaginian  noble,  cap- 
tured by  the  Romans  in  Sardinia, 
400. 

Harmonia,  Gelon's  daughter,  wife 
of  Themistus,  436  ;  executed  by 
order  of  the  Syracusan  mob,  437. 

Hasdrubal  Calvus,  Carthaginian 
commander,  394  ;  sent  against 
Sardinia,  391  ;  arrives  in  Sardin- 
ia, 399  ;  captured  and  his  army 
annihilated,  400. 

Hasdrubal,    brother    of    Hannibal, 


INDEX 


473 


assigned  Spain  as  his  province, 
253  ;  crosses  the  Ebro,  288  ;  causes 
a  panic  among  the  Roman  marines 
at  Tarraco,  289 ;  destruction  of 
his  fleet,  313  ;  retires  to  Lusitania, 
314 ;  desertion  of  his  captains, 
383 ;  at  war  with  the  Tartesii, 
384  ;  ordered  into  Italy,  385  ;  de- 
feated at  the  Ebro  by  the  Scipios, 
387. 

Hasdrubal,  son-in-law  of  Hamilcar, 
235  ;  advances  the  Carthaginian 
interests  in  Spain,  235  ;  is  mur- 
dered by  a  barbarian,  236 ;  Ro- 
man treaty  with,  236,  note,  pages 
233-234,  250. 

Hasdrubal,  son  of  Gisgo,  Cartha- 
ginian commander  in  Spain,  454. 

Hegeas,  a  Neapolitan  noble,  killed 
in  Hannibal's  attack  on  Naples, 

356- 

Helorus,  city  in  Sicily,  taken  by 
Marcellus,  447. 

Heraclea,  daughter  of  Hiero,  wife 
of  Zoippus,  murdered  with  her 
two  daughters  by  the  Syracusan 
mob,  437,  438. 

Heraclea,  21  ;  battle  at,  with  Pyr- 
rhus,  349  ;  Himilco  lands  at,  447. 

Heracleitus,  envoy  sent  by  Philip  to 
Hannibal,  398. 

Herbessus,  442 ;  taken  by  Marcel- 
lus, 447. 

Hercules,  tradition  of,  and  Cacus, 
7  ;  sacrifices  to,  as  instituted  by 
Evander,  7,  8. 

Herdonius,  Appius,  a  Sabine,  with 
exiles  and  slaves,  seizes  the  Cap- 
itol, 165  ;  slain  at  the  taking  of 
the  Capitol,  169. 

Herennius,  255. 

Hermandica,  a  town  of  the  Vaccaei, 
238  ;  stormed  by  Hannibal,  238. 

Herminius,  Titus,  83,  85,  86  ;  his 
death,  95  ;  kills  Mamilius,  95. 

Herminius,  Spurius,  consul,  222. 

Hernicans,  62,  97  ;  defeated  by 
Aquilius,  119;  treaty  with  the, 
119;  with  the  Latins,  defeat  the 
.itquans  and  Volscians,  136  ;  and 
Latins,  send  a  golden  crown  as  a 
gift  to  Jupiter,  213. 

Herodotus,  63,  note. 

Hersilia,  wife  of  Romulus,  13. 

Hexapylon,  432. 

Hiero,  King  of  Syracuse,  notifies  the 
praetor  v£milius  of  the  arrival  of 


the  Carthaginian  fleet,  278  ;  sends 
statue  of  Victory  and  supplies  to 
Rome,  329 ;  furnishes  pay  and 
provisions  to  the  Roman  fleet, 
378  ;  his  death,  413. 

Hieronymus,  son-in-law  of  Hiero, 
his  nature  and  career  upon  his 
accession  to  the  throne  of  Sicily, 
413  ;  seeks  an  alliance  with  Han- 
nibal, 415  ;  assassinated  by  the 
conspirators  at  Leontini,  416. 

Himera,  river  in  Sicily,  416. 

Himilco,  of  the  Barcine  faction, 
taunts  Hanno  in  the  Carthaginian 
senate,  366  ;  lands  at  Heraclea,  in 
Sicily,  447. 

Hippocrates,  envoy  sent  by  Hanni- 
bal to  Syracuse,  415;  with  Epi- 
cydes,  takes  possession  of  Syra- 
cuse, 444  ;  elected  praetor  at  Syra- 
cuse, 439. 

Hirpini.  towns  of,  recovered  by 
Marcus  Valerius,  397  ;  send  en- 
voys to  Hannibal,  401. 

Histri,  248. 

Hope,  Temple  of,  battle  with  the 
Etruscans  near  the,  133. 

Horatia,  killed  by  her  brother,  30; 
tomb  of,  32. 

Horatii  and  Curiatii,  tradition  of, 
27-30. 

Horatius,  returning  home  with  the 
spoils  of  the  Curiatii,  kills  his  sis- 
ter at  the  gate  Capena,  30  ;  is  tried 
and  acquitted  on  appeal,  31,  32. 

Horatius  Codes,  story  of  his  brave 
keeping  of  the  bridge,  82-84 ; 
honoured  by  the  state,  84. 

Horatius,  Gaius,  Pulvillus,  consul, 
133,  182  ;  razes  Corbio  and  takes 
Ortona  and  Algidum  from  the 
./Equans,  183  ;  augur,  dies  of  the 
plague,  184. 

Horatius,  Marcus,  defends  Icilius 
after  the  murder  of  Verginia,  202  ; 
called  for  by  the  soldiers  on  the 
Aventine,  205  ;  sent  as  ambassa- 
dor to  the  Sacred  Mount,  207  ; 
elected  first  consul  after  the  fall 
of  the  decemvirs,  209 ;  sent  against 
the  Sabines,  213 ;  defeats  them, 
220  ;  triumph,  first  decreed  by  the 
people,  220  ;  refuses  re-election  to 
the  consulship,  221. 

Horatius,  Marcus,  Pulvillus,  elected 
consul,  81  ;  dedicates  the  Temple 
of  Jupiter  on  the  Capitoline,  Si. 


474 


LIVY'S    ROMAN    HISTORY 


Hostilia,  Curia,  senate-house  built 
by  Tullus,  36. 

Hostilius,  Hostius,  a  Roman  gen- 
eral, killed  in  battle  with  the  Sa- 
bines,  14. 

Hostilius,  Lucius,  Mancinus,  de- 
feated in  a  cavalry  skirmish,  309. 

Hostus,  son  of  Hampsicora,  de- 
feated, 399. 

Human  sacrifices  offered  in  the  Ox- 
market,  347. 

Ibera,  Spanish  town,  386. 

Icilius,  Spurius,  tribune,  141. 

Icilius,  Lucius,  betrothed  of  Ver- 
ginia,  197  ;  causes  the  secession  of 
the  army  among  the  Sabines,  205  ; 
delivers  the  address  to  the  am- 
bassadors at  the  Sacred  Mount, 
207  ;  elected  tribune  after  the  re- 
turn from  the  Sacred  Mount,  209  ; 
proposes  a  triumph  for  Valerius 
and  Horatius,  220. 

Ictumuli,  town  of  the  Insubrian 
Gauls,  274. 

Ilergavonia,  314. 

Ilergetes,  a  Spanish  tribe,  253  ;  re- 
duced by  Hannibal,  254 ;  revolt 
to  Hasdrubal,  289  ;  are  defeated 
by  Scipio,  289. 

Iliberri,  a  Gallic  town,  Hannibal 
encamps  at,  255. 

Iliturgi,  the  Scipios  defeat  the  Car- 
thaginian armies  at,  408,  409,  454. 

Illyrii,  248. 

Indibilis,  prince  of  the  Ilergetes, 
14;  attacks  Roman  allies  in  Spain 
and  is  defeated  by  Scipio,  314. 

Insubres,  Gallic  tribe,  at  war  with 
the  Taurini,  268  ;  revolt  on  hear- 
ing of  Hannibal's  passage  of  the 
Ebro,  255. 

Interregnum,  first,  20. 

Inuus,  festival  of  Pan  Lycaeus,  so 
called  by  the  Romans,  5. 

Isalcas,  one  of  Hannibal's  officers, 

374- 

Isere,  river,  261. 

Island,  the,  part  of  the  city  of  Syra- 
cuse, 432. 

lulus.     See  Ascanius. 

Janus  Quirinus,  39. 

Janus,  Temple  of,  built  by  Numa, 

22  ;  when  closed,  22. 
Janiculum,  added  to  the  city,  41  ; 

surrounded  by  a  wall,  41. 


Julius,  Gaius,  consul,  122  ;  elected 
to  the  first  college  of  decemvirs, 
185  ;  appoints  a  day  of  trial  for 
Publius  Sestius,  186  ;  sent  as  an 
ambassador  to  the  camp  on  the 
Aventine  after  the  murder  of  Ver- 
ginia,  205. 

Julius,  Gaius,  consul,  222. 

Julius,  Vopiscus,  consul  (disputed), 
136. 

Junius,  Marcus,  Pera,  made  dicta- 
tor, 348  ;  marches  from  Rome,  368. 

Junius,  Marcus,  Silanus,  Roman  of- 
ficer at  Naples,  369. 

Juno  Lacinia,  Temple  of,  412. 

Jupiter  Elicius,  altar  to,  dedicated 
by  Numa,  24. 

Jupiter  Feretrius,  Temple  of,  vowed 
by  Romulus,  13  ;  enlarged,  41. 

Jupiter,  flamen  to,  office  discharged 
by  king,  23  ;  perpetual  priest  ap- 
pointed, 23. 

Jupiter  Indiges,  name  of  ^Eneas,  3. 

Jupiter  Stator,  Temple  of,  vowed  by 
Romulus,  14. 

Jupiter,  Temple  of,  Capitolinus, 
foundations  laid  by  Tarquin,  46  ; 
foundation  completed,  64. 

Jupiter,  temple  to,  vowed,  303. 

Labici,  taken  by  the  Volscians, 
117. 

Lacetani,  a  Spanish  tribe,  reduced 
by  Hannibal,  254  ;  renew  Roman 
alliance,  288  ;  revolt,  and  are  sub- 
dued by  Scipio,  289. 

Lacinia,  Temple  of  Juno,  392. 

Laetorius,  Caius,  curule  aedile,  388. 

Laetorius,  Marcus,  centurion,  dedi- 
cates a  Temple  of  Mercury,  102. 

Laetorius,  tribune,  139  ;  defies  the 
consular  authority  and  creates 
disturbance  in  the  assembly,  140. 

Larentia,  wife  of  Faustulus,  brings 
up  Romulus  and  Remus,  5. 

Larcius,  Titus,  consul,  92  ;  ap- 
pointed dictator,  93;  consul,  96; 
his  opinion  concerning  the  debt- 
ors, 105. 

Larcius,  Spurius,  83,  85. 

Larinum,  317. 

Lars  Porsina.     See  Porsina. 

Lars  Tolumnius,  of  Veii,  13. 

Latin  Feast,  293. 

Latinius,  Titus,  a  plebeian,  dreams 
of,  and  their  consequences,  114. 

Latins,  first  so  called,  3, 


INDEX 


475 


Latin  wars,  38,  40,  61,  94  ;  peace 
with  the,  97  ;  send  offerings  to 
Jupiter  Capitolinus,  97  ;  with  the 
Hernicans,  defeat  the  .<Equans 
and  Volscians,  136  ;  and  Hernicans 
send  a  golden  crown  as  a  gift  to 
Jupiter,  213. 

Latinus,  King  of  the  Laurentines,  I  ; 
makes  an  alliance  with  .<Eneas,  2  ; 
is  killed,  2. 

Latinus  Silvius,  son  of  ./Eneas  Sil- 
vius,  4  ;  sends  out  colonies,  4. 

Laurentum,  a  province  of  ancient 
Italy,  i. 

Lavinia,  daughter  of  Latinus,  wife 
of  JEneas,  2  ;  regent  of  the  Latin 
state,  3. 

Lavinium,  city  in  Italy,  founded  by 
./Eneas,  2  ;  treaty  with,  renewed, 
16  ;  taken  by  the  Volscians,  117. 

Law  of  appeal,  passed  by  Valerius, 
80. 

Leontini,  city  in  Sicily,  Hieron- 
ymus  assassinated  at,  416  ;  431, 
440 ;  Roman  detachment  massa- 
cred at,  440 ;  taken  by  the  Ro- 
mans, 441. 

Lex  Sacrala,  passed,  no,  note;  re- 
vived, 210. 

Liberty,  Temple  of,  426. 

Licinius,  Caius,  envoy  to  Carthage, 
249;  in  Spain  and  Gaul,  251  ;  re- 
turns to  Rome,  252. 

Licinius,  Gaius,  elected  tribune  of 
the  people,  no. 

Licinius,  Spurius,  a  tribune  of  the 
people,  122  ;  forces  the  agrarian 
law  and  is  defeated  by  his  col- 
leagues, 122. 

Lictors,  first  chosen,  whence  de- 
rived, 9. 

Ligures,  embassy  sent  to  the,  326. 

Liguria,  Hannibal  in,  287. 

Lilybaeum,  promontory,  in  Sicily, 
277  ;  defeat  of  the  Carthaginian 
fleet  at,  278 ;  Roman  fleet  from 
Africa  arrives  at,  378  ;  Otacilius 
crosses  from,  into  Africa,  400. 

Liparae  Islands,  Carthaginian  ships 
at  the,  277. 

Litana,  forest,  so  called  by  the 
Gauls,  381. 

Liternum,  304. 

Livius,  Marcus,  envoy  to  Carthage, 
249  ;  in  Spain  and  Gaul,  251  ;  re- 
turns to  Rome,  252  ;  sent  to  the 
defence  of  Tarentum,  431. 


Locri,  revolts  to  Hannibal,  354 ;  ta- 
ken by  the  Bruttians  and  Cartha- 
ginians, 388 ;  taken  by  Hanno, 
410. 

Longula,  no,  116. 

Longuntica,  Spanish  town,  taken 
by  Scipio  and  the  Roman  fleet, 
3H- 

Lower  Sea,  355. 

Luca,  Sempronius  in,  287. 

Lucani,  revolt  to  Hannibal,  354. 

Luceres,  century  of  knights,  en- 
rolled by  Romulus,  16,  44. 

Luceria,  Roman  army  in  winter 
quarters  at,  406,  413 ;  country 
around,  ravaged  by  Fabius,  430. 

Lucius  Tarquin.     See  Tarquinius. 

Lucretia,  wife  of  Collatinus,  67 ; 
story  of  the  rape  of,  67-69 ;  her 
death,  69. 

Lucretius,  Lucius,  quaestor,  taken 
prisoner  by  Hannibal,  287. 

Lucretius,  Lucius,  Trincipitinus, 
consul,  157  ;  annihilates  the  pow- 
er of  the  Volscians,  157,  158  ;  tri- 
umph of,  154  ;  defends  Czeso  in 
the  assembly,  162. 

Lucretius,  Publius,  prefect  of  the 
city,  176. 

Lucretius,  Spurius,  consul,  90. 

Lucretius,  Spurius,  father  of  Lu- 
cretia, 68,  74  ;  elected  consul,  80  ; 
death  of,  81. 

Lucretius,  Titus,  consul,  81  ;  consul 
for  second  time,  91. 

Lucumo.  See  Lucius  Tarquinius 
Priscus. 

Lupercal,  festival  of  the,  5. 

Lusitani,  Spanish  tribe,  285. 

Lusitania,  Hasdrubal  retires  to,  314. 

Lutatius,  Caius,  consul,  concluded 
the  treaty  of  the  first  Punic  war, 
250 ;  land  commissioner,  takes 
refuge  at  Mutina,  255  ;  his  victory 
at  the  yEgusan  Islands  in  the  first 
Punic  war,  308. 

Macedonia,  ./Eneas  arrives  in,  i. 
Magalus,  chief    of    the   Boii,    260 ; 

offers   to  guide   Hannibal   across 

the  Alps,  260. 
Magius,    Cneius    Atellanus,     chief 

magistrate    of    the   Campanians, 

429. 
Magius,  Decius,  a  citizen  of  Capua, 

opposes  Hannibal,  361  ;   arrested 

by     Hannibal,    364 ;     vessel     on 


476 


LIVY'S  ROMAN  HISTORY 


which  he  is  being  transported  to 
Carthage  driven  ashore  at  Cy- 
renae,  365  ;  accepts  the  protection 
of  King  Ptolemaeus,  365. 

Mago,  brother  of  Hannibal,  282 ; 
his  part  at  Cannae,  338  ;  returns 
to  Carthage  with  news  of  Cannae, 
365  ;  sent  to  Spain,  391. 

Mago,  Carthaginian  noble,  cap- 
tured by  the  Romans  in  Sardinia, 
400. 

Mago,  envoy  from  Hannibal  to 
Philip,  392  ;  taken  prisoner  by  the 
Roman  fleet,  393. 

Maharbal,  son  of  Himilco,  left  in 
command  at  Saguntum,  245  ;  gen- 
eral of  Hannibal's  cavalry,  ad- 
vises him  to  march  on  Rome  after 
the  battle  of  Cannae,  342. 

Malitiosa,  wood  called,  battle  at, 
Sabines  defeated,  37. 

Mamertine  Prison  built,  41. 

Mamilius,  Lucius,  dictator  at  Tus- 
culum,  sends  assistance  to  Rome, 
168  ;  citizenship  granted  to,  182. 

Mamilius,  Octavius,  of  Tusculum, 
marries  the  daughter  of  Lucius 
Tarquin,  58  ;  Tarquin  goes  into 
exile  to,  90 ;  forms  confederacy 
against  Rome,  92  ;  killed,  95. 

Mandonis,  a  Spanish  prince,  314 ; 
attacks  Roman  allies  in  Spain, 

314. 

Manlius,  Aulus,  ambassador  to 
Athens  to  study  the  laws  of  So- 
lon, 184 ;  elected  to  the  first  col- 
lege of  decemvirs,  195. 

Manlius,  Gaius,  consul,  136;  brought 
to  trial  by  the  tribune  Genucius, 
136. 

Manlius, Gnaeus, consul,  123;  wound- 
ed in  battle,  127  ;  death  of,  128. 

Manlius,  Lucius,  praetor,  command- 
er in  Gaul,  249  ;  marches  to  the 
relief  of  Mutina,  256  ;  attacked 
by  the  Gauls,  256 ;  encamps  at 
Tannetum,  256. 

Manlius,  Lucius  Vulso,  candidate 
for  the  consulship,  defeated,  328. 

Manlius,  Titus  Torquatus,  speaks 
in  the  senate  against  ransoming 
the  Roman  prisoners  taken  at 
Cannae,  350 ;  sent  with  an  army 
to  Sardinia,  393 ;  his  operations 
in  Sardinia,  399. 

Manilius,  Sextus,  elected  tribune 
at  the  Aventine,  206. 


Manlius,  Titus,  consul,  22, 

Marcellus,  Marcus  Claudius,  13, 
note  ;  praetor  for  Sicily,  328  ;  de- 
feats Hannibal  at  Nola,  404,  405  ; 
third  time  consul,  419 ;  drives 
Hannibal  into  his  camp  before 
Nola,  427 ;  comes  to  the  re-en- 
forcement of  Fabius's  army  at 
Casilinum,  and  aids  in  its  cap- 
ture, 429 ;  assigned  the  province 
of  Sicily,  431,  445. 

Marcius,  Gnaeus,  Coriolanus,  no; 
opposes  the  distribution  of  the 
corn,  112  ;  day  of  trial  appointed 
for,  113  ;  exiled,  113  ;  stirs  up  the 
Volscians,  113  ;  given  command 
of  the  Volscians,  116;  retreats 
from  Rome  at  the  solicitations  of 
his  wife  and  mother,  and  dies  in 
disgrace,  119. 

Marcus  Laetorius.     See  Laetorius. 

Marius,  Statilius,  334. 

Marrucini,  Sabine  tribe,  302. 

Marsi,  302. 

Mars,  flamen  for,  23. 

Mars  Gradivus,  Salii  for,  duties  of, 
chosen  by  Numa,  24. 

Massic  range,  307. 

Massilia,  modern  Marseilles,  allies 
of  Rome,  252. 

Masinissa,  son  of  Gala,  defeats 
Syphax,  462. 

Maso,  Papirius.     See  Papirius. 

Massyli,  a  Numidian  tribe,  461. 

Maurusii,  a  Numidian  tribe,  462. 

Maximus.     See  Fabius. 

Mecilius,  Lucius,  tribune,  141. 

Medixtuticus,  chief  magistrate  of 
the  Campanians,  395. 

Medullia,  Latins  defeated  at,  40 ; 
taken  by  Tarquin,  46. 

Megara,  442  ;  sacked  and  destroyed 
by  Marcellus,  447. 

Melita,  Malta,  279. 

Melkarth,  Carthaginian  divinity, 
253,  note. 

Menige,  island  of,  324. 

Menenius,  Agrippa,  consul,  91 ;  and 
Publius,  Postumius,  triumph  of, 
92  ;  addresses  the  commons  at  the 
Sacred  Mount,  109  ;  brings  the 
commons  back  to  the  city,  no  ; 
death  of,  in  ;  is  buried  by  the 
people,  in. 

Menenius,  Gaius,  consul,  184. 

Menenius,  Titus,  consul,  133  ;  de- 
feated by  the  Etruscans,  133 ; 


INDEX 


477 


tried,  fined,  and  dies  from  the  ef- 
fects of  the  disgrace,  135. 

Mercenaries,  first  employed,  462. 

Mercuriales,  102,  note. 

Mercury,  temple  to,  dedicated,  96  ; 
dispute  concerning  the  dedication 
of  a,  102. 

Mesian  forest,  taken  from  the  Vei- 
entes,  41. 

Messana,  277,  401. 

Metapontum,  21  ;  revolts  to  Hanni- 
bal, 354. 

Metellus.     See  Caecilius. 

Metilius,  Marcus,  tribune,  319 ;  op- 
poses the  policy  of  Fabius,  319  ; 
proposes  the  division  of  the  com- 
mand, 319. 

Metius,  Statius,  in  command  of  the 
Campanians  and  Carthaginian 
garrison  at  Casilinum,  429. 

Mettius  Curtius,  leader  of  the  Sa- 
bines,  14. 

Mettius  Fufetius,  dictator  of  the  Al- 
bans,  26  ;  his  treachery  to  the  Ro- 
mans, 33  ;  terrible  death  of,  35. 

Mezentius,  King  of  the  Etruscans,  2. 

Minoa.     See  Heraclea. 

Minorum  gentium,  instituted  by 
Tarquin,  43. 

Minucius,  Lucius,  consul,  177  ;  be- 
sieged in  his  camp,  178  ;  elected 
into  the  second  college  of  decem- 
virs, 188. 

Minucius,  Marcus,  consul,  96,  112. 

Minucius,  Marcus,  Rufus,  master 
of  the  horse,  302  ;  opposes  the 
policy  of  Fabius,  307  ;  wins  a 
trifling  advantage  over  Hannibal 
at  Gereonium,  318  ;  made  equal 
in  command  with  Fabius,  320 ; 
entrapped  by  Hannibal  but  saved 
from  defeat  by  the  army  of  Fa- 
bius, 321-323  ;  returns  with  his 
army  to  Fabius  and  relinquishes 
the  command,  323  ;  death  at  Can- 
nae, 341. 

Minucius,  Marcus,  tribune,  378. 

Minucius,  Publius,  consul,  in. 

Minucius,  Quintus,  consul,  182. 

Mceniacoepto,  Gallic  chief,  his  death, 

455- 
Mopsii,    noble   family   at    Compsa, 

355- 

Mucian  Meadows,  why  called,  88. 

Mucius,  Gaius,  exploit  of,  86  ;  after- 
ward called  Scaevola,  87  ;  re- 
warded by  the  state,  88. 


Mucius,  Quintus,  Scaevola,  praetor, 
381  ;  has  Sardinia  as  his  province, 
393- 

Mucius,  Quintus,  456. 

Munda,  Spanish  town,  Carthaginian 
camp  moved  to,  454. 

Murcia,  Temple  of,  41. 

Murgantia,  Roman  fleet  at,  439  ;  re- 
covered by  Himilco  through  the 
betrayal  of  its  garrison,  449. 

Mutina,  modern  Modena,  255  ;  land 
commissioners  from  Placentia  and 
Cremona  take  refuge  at,  255  ;  be- 
sieged by  the  Boii,  255. 

Naevian  gate,  85,  86. 

Naevius,  Quintus,  Crista,  defeats 
Philip  of  Macedon  at  Appolonia, 
453- 

Naples,  envoys  from,  come  to  Rome 
with  gifts,  325;  strength  of  the 
city  deters  Hannibal  from  attack- 
ing- 355- 

Nautius,  Gaius,  consul,  135,  177. 

Nautius,  Spurius,  consul,  117. 

New  Street,  49,  note. 

Nobles,  conspiracy  of  the  young,  75. 

Nola,  citizens  of,  send  ambassadors 
to  Marcellus,  369  ;  Hannibal  aban- 
dons, 370 ;  Hannibal  repulsed  by 
Marcellus  at,  371,  372  ;  Hannibal 
invests,  403  ;  Hannibal  defeated 
by  Marcellus  at,  404,  405  ;  party 
in  the  town  offer  to  surrender  to 
Hannibal,  423. 

Nomentan  Way,  206. 

Nomentum,  taken  by  Tarquin,  46. 

Norba,  colony  of  Rome,  112. 

Nova  Classis,  314. 

Nuceria,  Hannibal  takes,  370. 

Numa  Pompilius,  account  of,  21  ; 
is  offered  the  kingdom,  21  ;  con- 
sults the  auguries,  21 ;  is  made 
king,  22 ;  the  works  of,  22-25  ; 
death  of,  25. 

Numa  Marcius,  son  of  Marcius, 
pontiff,  24. 

Numerius  Decimius,  a  Samnite  offi- 
cer, 318. 

Numicius,  Titus,  Priscus,  consul, 
145 ;  marches  against  the  Volsci- 
ans,  and  drives  them  to  Antium, 

145- 

Numicus,  a  river,  3. 
Numidians,  their  stratagem  at  the 

battle  of  Cannae,  339  ;  desert  to 

Marcellus,  405. 


LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY 


Numitor,  son  of  Proca,  4 ;  made 
king,  4;  driven  out  by  Amuli- 
us,  4 ;  is  proclaimed  King  of 
Alba,  6. 

Numitorius,  Lucius,  tribune,  141. 

Numitorius,  Publius,  great-uncle  of 
Verginia,  198  ;  causes  the  seces- 
sion of  the  army  among  the  Sa- 
bines,  295  ;  elected  tribune  after 
the  return  from  the  Sacred  Mount, 
209. 

Oath  of  allegiance,  first  adminis- 
tered to  the  soldiers  by  the  trib- 
unes, 330. 

Ocriculum,  304. 

Olcades,  a  Spanish  tribe,  238. 

Olympium,  the,  Temple  of  Jupiter 
at  Syracuse,  Roman  army  at,  445. 

Onusa,  town  in  Spain,  254 ;  taken 
by  Cneius  Scipio  and  the  Roman 
fleet,  313. 

Oppia,  a  vestal  virgin,  punished  for 
unchastity,  122. 

Oppius,  Gaius,  elected  tribune  after 
the  return  from  the  Sacred  Mount, 
209. 

Oppius,  Marcus,  elected  tribune  at 
the  Aventine,  206. 

Oppius,  Spurius,  Cornicen,  elected 
into  the  second  college  of  decem- 
virs, 188 ;  convenes  the  senate 
after  the  murder  of  Verginia,  203  ; 
day  appointed  for  trial,  214;  takes 
his  life  in  prison,  215. 

Orbitanium,  town  in  Samnium, 
stormed  by  Fabius,  430. 

Oretani,  a  Spanish  tribe,  245. 

Oricum,  452  ;    Roman  fleet  winters 

at,  453- 

Ortona,  a  Latin  city,  besieged  by 
the  ^quans,  122. 

Ostia,  built,  41. 

Otacilius,  Lucius,  346. 

Otacilius,  Titus,  Crassus,  324,  330, 
378  ;  dedicates  Temple  of  Reason, 
389 ;  in  Africa,  400 ;  captures 
seven  ships  of  the  Carthaginians, 
400 ;  nominated  for  the  consul- 
ship, is  opposed  by  Fabius,  417  ; 
commander  of  the  fleet,  419,  456. 

Pachynus,    Carthaginian    fleet    at, 

439- 

Pacuvius.     See  Calavius. 
Paestum,  envoys  from,  bring  gifts 

to  Rome,  329. 


Palatine  Hill,  derivation  of  name,  5. 

Pan  Lycaeus,  festival  of,  called 
Inuus  by  the  Romans,  5. 

Panormus,  in  Sicily,  Roman  legion 
landed  at,  448. 

Papirius,  Lucius,  Cursor,  conqueror 
of  the  Samnites,  308,  419. 

Papirius,  Caeso,  Maso,  255. 

Paphlygonia,  Eneti  driven  from,  I. 

Pedum,  taken  by  the  Volscians,  117. 

Peligni,  302,  311. 

Pelliti-Sardi,  Sardinian  tribe,  de- 
feated, 399. 

Pentri,  the,  Samnite  tribe,  faithful 
to  Rome,  354. 

Periander  of  Corinth,  63,  note, 

Perusia,  373. 

Petelia,  loyal  community  of  the 
Bruttians,  sends  for  aid,  377 ; 
prepares  for  defence  against  Han- 
nibal, 377  ;  taken  by  the  Cartha- 
ginians, 387. 

Pettius,  Herius,  citizen  of  Nola,  403. 

Philip,  King  of  Macedon,  embassy 
sent  to,  326 ;  sends  envoys  to 
Hannibal,  392  ;  his  second  em- 
bassy to  Hannibal,  398  ;  war  with, 
452  ;  defeated  at  Appolonia,  453  ; 
hurries  overland  to  Macedonia, 

453- 
Picenum,    ravaged     by    Hannibal, 

302. 

Pictor,  Fabius.     See  Fabius. 
Pila  Horatii,  31. 
Pinarii,    Potitii    and,    tradition    of 

the,  9. 

Pinarius,  Lucius,  consul,  138. 
Pinarius,    Lucius,    in    command   at 

Enna,  massacres  its  citizens  and 

saves  the  Roman   garrison    from 

betrayal,  449-451. 
Pineus,  King  of  Jllyria,  envoys  sent 

to,  326. 
Piso,  Lucius  Calpurnius,  historian, 

65,  109,  141. 
Placentia,  Roman  colony,  255  ;  army 

in  winter  quarters  at,  268,  290. 
Plague  at  Rome,  155. 
Po,  river,  colonies   near   the,    255 ; 

Hannibal  crosses  the,  276. 
Poenine,   question   whether    Hanni- 
bal   crossed    the   Alps   over   this 

range,  267. 

Poeninus,  a  Gallic  deity,  268. 
Poetilius,  Quintus,  elected  into  the 

second  college  of  decemvirs,  188. 
Politorium,    taken    by   Ancus,   40; 


INDEX 


479 


taken  a  second  time  and  destroyed, 
40. 

Polusca,  city  of  the  Volscians,  no, 
116. 

Polyaenus,  his  advice  to  the  citizens 
of  Syracuse,  433. 

Pomerium,  defined,  31,  note,  52. 

Pometia,  Suessa,  spoils  of,  conse- 
crated to  build  temple  to  Jupiter, 
61,  64 ;  colony  revolts  to  the  Au- 
runcans,  91  ;  surrenders  to  Ver- 
ginius  and  Cassius,  92  ;  taken  and 
plundered,  101. 

Pompeius,  Sextus,  lieutenant,  as- 
signed territory  of  Vibo,  280. 

Pomponius,  Manius,  Matho,  Vetu- 
rius's  master  of  the  horse,  retires 
on  account  of  a  flaw  in  the  ap- 
pointment, 326  ;  praetor,  300,  328, 
380 ;  summons  the  senate  after 
Cannae,  345 ;  re-enforces  Marcel- 
lus  at  Nola,  427. 

Pomponius,  Marcus,  elected  tribune 
after  the  return  from  the  Sacred 
Mount,  209. 

Pontifex  Maximus,  102. 

Pontiff,  office  instituted  by  Numa, 
24. 

Pontificius,  Tiberius,  tribune,  123. 

Porsina,  Lars,  King  of  Clusium, 
81  ;  marches  on  Rome,  8r  ;  be- 
sieges the  city,  85  ;  sends  ambas- 
sadors to  Rome,  87  ;  makes  peace 
and  abandons  the  siege,  88  ;  last- 
ing peace  with,  90. 

Postumius,  Aulus,  Albus,  consul, 
151  ;  ambassador  to  the  ^Equans 
at  Algidum,  177. 

Postumius,  Aulus,  dictator,  94  ; 
leads  the  Roman  forces  at  Regil- 
lus,  95  ;  sent  against  the  Sabines, 
101. 

Postumius,  Lucius,  Albinus,  praetor 
for  Gaul,  328. 

Postumius,  Lucins,  in  his  ab- 
sence elected  consul  for  the  third 
time,  381  ;  he  and  his  army  en- 
trapped and  cut  to  pieces  in  Gaul, 
381. 

Postumius,  Publius,  consul,  90,  91  ; 
and  Agrippa  Menenius,  triumph 
of,  92. 

Postumius,  Spurius,  Albus,  consul, 
149 ;  ambassador  to  Athens  to 
study  the  laws  of  Solon,  184  ; 
elected  into  the  first  college  of  de- 
cemvirs, 185. 


Potitii  and  Pinarii,  tradition  of 
the,  9. 

Praeneste,  revolts  from  the  Latins  to 
the  Romans,  93  ;  garrison  of  citi- 
zens of,  at  Casilinum,  373  ;  citi- 
zens of,  return  after  the  capitula- 
tion of  Casilinum,  376. 

Praetor,  210,  note. 

Praetutia,  ravaged  by  Hannibal, 
302. 

Prisci  Latini,  4. 

Prisoners,  delegates  from  the  Ro- 
man, after  Cannae,  348  ;  refused 
ransom,  353. 

Proca,  King,  4. 

Proculus  Julius,  his  speech  to  the 
people,  19. 

Prodigies,  290,  294,  329,  390,  420, 
457- 

Proserpine,  legendary  scene  of  the 
rape  of,  451. 

Ptolemaeus,  365. 

Publicola.     See  Valerius,  Publius. 

Publilius,  Volero,  defies  the  consuls, 
138  ;  elected  tribune,  138  ;  pro- 
poses election  law,  139  ;  re-elected 
tribune,  139. 

Pupius,  Caius,  appointed  to  con- 
tract for  the  building  of  the  Tem- 
ple of  Concord,  326. 

Puteoli,  417,  422  ;  Hannibal  attacks, 
unsuccessfully,  423. 

Pylaemenes,  leader  of  the  Eneti, 
killed  at  Troy,  i. 

Pyrenees,  passes  of,  left  in  charge 
of  Hanno,  254. 

Pyrrhus,  King,  416. 

Pythagoras,  of  Samos,  in  Italy,  21. 

Pythian  Apollo,  consulted  by  Tar- 
quin,  65  ;  oracle  of  the,  received 
at  Rome,  365. 

Quinctian  Meadows,  178. 

Quinctii,  Alban  family  enrolled 
among  the  patricians  by  Tullus, 
36 

Quinctilius,  Sextus,  consul,  184 ; 
dies  of  the  plague,  184. 

Quinctius,  Caeso,  description  of, 
161  ;  obstructs  the  law,  162 ;  is 
summoned  to  trial,  162  ;  is  tried 
and  sent  into  exile,  163-164. 

Quinctius,  Caeso,  Flaminius,  ap- 
pointed to  contract  for  the  build- 
ing of  the  Temple  of  Concord, 
326. 

Quinctius,  Lucius,  Cincinnatus,  de- 


480 


LIVY'S  ROMAN   HISTORY 


fends  his  son  Caeso,  163  ;  retires 
to  his  cottage  across  the  Tiber, 
164;  elected  consul,  170;  refuses 
the  consulship,  173  ;  dictator,  178  ; 
leaves  his  field  to  take  the  office, 
178-179  ;  leads  his  army  to  the 
relief  of  Minucius,  180;  sends  the 
.iEquans  under  the  yoke,  181  ;  en- 
ters the  city  in  triumph,  181-182. 

Quinctius,  Titus,  Capitolinus,  con- 
sul, 139 ;  pacifies  the  disturbance 
raised  by  Appius  and  Laetorius, 
140;  sent  against  the  ^Equans,  141; 
consul,  145  ;  defeats  the  Volscians 
and  takes  Antium,  147  ;  triumvir 
for  distributing  the  land  at  Anti- 
urn,  149 ;  consul  for  the  second 
time,  149 ;  defeats  the  ^Equans, 
150;  closes  the  lustrum.  151  ;  sent 
as  pro-consul  to  the  relief  of  Spu- 
rius  Furius,  152 ;  defeats  the 
^Equans,  153,  154;  consul  for  the 
third  time,  162  ;  quaestor,  177  ;  con- 
sul for  the  fourth  time,  223  ;  ad- 
dresses the  assembly,  223-226  ; 
defeats  the  ^Equans  at  Corbio, 
227-229. 

Quintus  Fabius  Maximus.  See  Fa- 
bius. 

Quirinal  Hill,  taken  into  the  city,  52. 

Quirinus,  flamen  for,  23. 

Quirites,  how  called,  16. 

Quiritum,  the  fossa,  built  by  An- 
cus,  41. 

Rabuleius,  Manius,  elected  into  the 
second  college  of  decemvirs,  188. 

Racilia,  wife  of  Cincinnatus,  179. 

Ramnenses,  century  of  knights,  en- 
rolled by  Romulus,  16,  44. 

Rea  Silvia,  daughter  of  Numitor,  4  ; 
chosen  Vestal  Virgin,  4 ;  shame 
and  death,  4. 

Reason,  temple  to,  vowed,  304 ; 
dedication  by  Otacilius,  389,  391. 

Regillus,  Lake,  battle  of,  94. 

Remus  and  Romulus,  exposed,  5  ; 
story  of  the  youth  of,  5  ;  take  the 
auguries  to  determine  who  shall 
build  the  new  city,  7. 

Remus,  death  of,  different  accounts 
of  the,  7. 

Rex  sacrificulus  appointed,  73. 

Rhegium,  388,  410. 

Rhone,  Hannibal's  passage  of  the, 
258,  259  ;  cavalry  engagement 
near  the,  259. 


Roman  games,  44. 

Rome,  founding  of,  7. 

Romilius,  Titus,  consul,  183 ;  day 
of  trial  appointed  for,  183  ;  tried 
and  condemned,  184 ;  elected  to 
the  first  college  of  decemvirs,  185. 

Romulus  Silvius,  son  of  Agrippa, 
king,  4 ;  killed  by  lightning,  4. 

Romulus  and  Remus,  exposed,  5 ; 
story  of  the  youth  of,  5  ;  take  the 
auguries  to  determine  who  shall 
build  the  new  city,  7. 

Romulus,  builds  the  city,  7  ;  slays 
and  strips  the  King  of  the  Caeni- 
nenses,  12  ;  institutes  the  spolia 
opima,  13  ;  divides  the  people 
into  curiae,  16  ;  enrolls  three  cen- 
turies of  knights,  16 ;  unites  Ro- 
mans and  Sabines  and  with  Ta- 
tius  rules  jointly,  16  ;  apotheosis 
of,  18,  19 ;  appears  to  Proculus 
Julius,  19. 

Rullus,  Maximus,  419. 

Ruminalis,  sacred  fig  tree,  5. 

Ruscino,  a  Gallic  town,  the  Gauls 
gather  at,  to  oppose  Hannibal,  255. 

Rutulians,  a  nation  of  Italy,  attack 
the  Latins,  2  ;  war  with  the,  66  ; 
from  Ardea,  settlers  at  Sagun- 
tum,  240. 

Sabines,  war  with,  36,  45,  91,  101  ; 
rape  of  the,  n  ;  driven  back  by 
the  Romans,  are  saved  by  the  in- 
terference of  the  Sabine  women, 
15  ;  and  Romans  united  under 
Romulus  and  Tatius,  15  ;  de- 
feated at  Malitiosa,  37  ;  defeated 
by  Marcus  Valerius,  107. 

Sacred  Banquet  held,  304. 

Sacred  Mount,  people  secede  to  the, 
after  the  murder  of  Verginia,  206  ; 
return  to  the  city  from  the,  209. 

Saguntum,  city  in  Spain,  240;  at- 
tacked by  Hannibal,  240 ;  send 
envoys  to  Rome,  240 ;  taken  by 
Hannibal,  247  ;  retaken  by  the 
Romans,  455. 

Salapia,  Hannibal  in  winter  quar- 
ters at,  431. 

Salii  of  Mars  Gradivus,  24. 

Salyes,  tribe  of  Gauls  near  Mas- 
silia,  256. 

Samnites,  excepting  the  Pentri,  re- 
volt to  Hannibal,  306,  354 ;  send 
envoys  to  Hannibal,  401. 

Sardi,  248. 


INDEX 


481 


Sardinia,  circumstances  of  the  sur- 
render of,  235  ;  233-234 ;  note, 
324..37S  ;  Carthaginian  forces  sent 
against,  391  ;  operations  of  the 
Roman  army  under  Manlius  in, 
399- 

Saticula,  359,  369. 

Satricum,  taken  by  the  Volscians, 
116. 

Saturn,  temple  to,  dedicated,  96. 

Saturnalia,  first  appointed,  96. 

Scaevola.     See  Mucius,  Gaius. 

Scantinius,  Publius,  his  death,  378. 

Scaptius,  Publius,  a  plebeian,  ad- 
viser of  the  people  in  the  affair 
with  Aricia,  229. 

Scipio.     See  Cornelius. 

Scotinus.     See  Heracleitus. 

Scribonius,  Lucius,  Libo,  353  ; 
finance  commissioner,  378. 

Secession  of  the  commons,  109. 

Seduni,  Alpine  tribe,  267. 

Sempronius,  Aulus,  consul,  96,  112. 

Sempronius,  Publius,  Tuditanus, 
tribune  of  the  soldiers,  leads  the 
retreat  to  Canusium,  341  ;  praetor, 
456- 

Sempronius,  Tiberius,  Longus,  con- 
sul, 240,  247  ;  Africa  and  Sicily 
assigned  to,  248  ;  arrives  at  Mes- 
sana,  279 ;  joins  Scipio  at  the 
Trebia,  280 ;  rashness  of,  280- 
282  ;  defeated  by  Hannibal  at  the 
river  Trebia,  282-284 ;  gains  a 
doubtful  victory  at  Hannibal's 
camp  near  Placentia,  287  ;  defeats 
Hanno  at  Grumentum,  397. 

Sempronius,  Tiberius,  floats  provi- 
sions to  the  besieged  Casilinum, 
375  ;  elected  consul,  381  ;  388  ;  de- 
feats Hanno's  army  at  Beneven- 
tum,  423-425  ;  frees  the  slaves  in 
his  command,  425  ;  consul  second 
time,  456. 

Sempronius,  Titus,  Marcus  Junius's 
master  of  the  horse,  347. 

Senate,  created  by  Romulus,  10. 

Sergius,  Marcus,  elected  into  the 
second  college  of  decemvirs,  188. 

Servian  wall,  built,  52,  note. 

Servilii,  Alban  family  enrolled 
among  the  patricians  by  Tullus,  36. 

Servilius,  Caius,  Roman  land  com- 
missioner at  the  Gallic  colonies 
on  the  Po,  takes  refuge  at  Muti- 
na,  255. 

Servilius,  Cneius,  Geminus,  elected 

31 


consul,  285  ;  enters  upon  his  con- 
sulship at  Rome,  293  ;  among  the 
Gauls,  302 ;  marches  hastily  to 
Rome  upon  hearing  of  the  defeat 
at  Trasumennus,  302  ;  his  naval 
campaign,  324;  and  defeat  in 
Africa,  324 ;  takes  over  the  com- 
mand from  Fabius,  325 ;  com- 
mands the  centre  at  Cannae,  337  ; 
his  death  at  Cannae,  341. 

Servilius,  Gaius,  consul,  131. 

Servilius,  Publius,  consul,  96,  98, 
99  ;  pacifies  the  debtors,  100 ; 
with  Appius,  resigns  the  consul- 
ship, 103. 

Servilius,  Publius,  154  ;  consul,  dies 
of  the  plague,  156. 

Servilius,  Quintus,  consul,  145  ;  rav- 
ages the  Sabine  territory,  146  ; 
consul,  149  ;  sent  against  the 
^Equans,  his  army  is  crippled  by 
illness,  149 ;  prefect  of  the  city, 
151  ;  quaestor,  appoints  day  of 
trial  for  Marcus  Volscius,  176. 

Servilius,  Spurius,  consul,  133  ;  with 
the  aid  of  his  colleague,  defeats 
the  Etruscans  at  the  Janiculum, 
134  ;  tried  and  acquitted,  135. 

Servius  Tullius,  story  of,  46-47  ; 
takes  possession  of  the  kingdom, 
49 ;  establishes  the  census,  50 ; 
commentaries  of,  71. 

Sestius,  Publius,  Capitolinus,  con- 
sul, 184  ;  elected  into  the  first  col- 
lege of  decemvirs,  185  ;  dead  body 
found  in  the  house  of,  186. 

Sextus  Tarquin.     See  Tarquinius. 

Sibyline  Books,  consulted,  290,  294, 
302. 

Siccius,  Gnaeus,  tribune,  141  ;  ap- 
points a  day  of  trial  for  Appius 
Claudius,  143. 

Siccius,  Lucius,  murdered  at  the 
instigation  of  the  decemvirs, 
197. 

Sicilius,  leader  of  the  revolt  of  the 
Hirpini,  beheaded  by  Marcus  Va- 
lerius, 397. 

Sicinius,  leads  the  secession  of  the 
commons,  108,  109. 

Sicily,  .<£neas  in,  i. 

Sicinius,  Gaius,  elected  tribune  af- 
ter the  return  from  the  Sacred 
Mount,  209. 

Sicinius,  Titus,  consul,  119. 

Sidicinum,  Sidicines.  347,  359. 

Signia,  colonists  sent  to,  65,  note. 


482 


LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY 


Silvius,  son  of  Ascanius,  3 ;  be- 
comes king,  4. 

Sinuessa,  baths  of,  307. 

Slaves,  and  exiles  seize  the  Capitol 
under  the  command  of  Appius 
Herdonius,  165  ;  first  levy  of, 
after  the  battle  of  Cannae,  347. 

Sopater,  434 ;  addresses  the  assem- 
bly after  the  assassination  of 
Themistus  and  Andranodorus, 
436. 

Sororium  Tigillum  (Sister's  Beam), 
32. 

Sosis,  one  of  the  conspirators  against 
Hieronymus,  431. 

Sositheus  Magnes,  envoy  sent  by 
Philip  to  Hannibal,  398. 

Spain,  division  of,  between  Rome 
and  Carthage,  236. 

Spoletum,  Hannibal  repulsed  from, 
with  great  loss,  302. 

Spolia  opima,  gained  by  Romulus, 
13  ;  by  Cossus,  13  ;  by  Marcellus, 

13- 

Spurius  Lucretius.     See  Lucretius. 

Statius,  Titus,  tribune,  135. 

Statorius,  Quintus,  drills  the  Numi- 
dian  infantry  under  Syphax,  461. 

Stella,  plains  of,  307. 

Sthenius,  Campanian  noble,  362. 

Stones,  rain  of,  propitiatory  for 
rites  instituted,  37. 

Sublician  bridge,  82. 

Subura,  163,  note. 

Suessa  Pometia.     See  Pometia. 

Suessula,  369,  373  ;  the  army  at,  390. 

Sulpicius,  Publius,  Camerinus,  am- 
bassador to  Athens  to  study  the 
laws  of  Solon,  184  ;  elected  to  the 
first  college  of  decemvirs,  185  ; 
sent  as  an  ambassador  to  the 
camp  on  the  Aventine,  after  the 
murder  of  Verginia,  205  ;  in  com- 
mand of  the  cavalry  at  Corbio, 
228. 

Sulpicius,  Servius,  consul,  93  ;  chief 
priest  of  the  curies,  156;  dies  of 
the  plague,  156. 

Sulpicius,  Servius,  consul,  160. 

Suovetaurilia,  rite  called,  52,  note. 

Sura,  Publius,  324. 

Syracuse,  revolution  at,  begins, 
431  ;  besieged  by  the  Romans, 

445- 

Syphax,  King  of  the  Numidians,  re- 
volts to  Rome.  460 ;  defeated  by 
Masinissa,  461,  462. 


Talassius,  Roman  nobleman,  tradi- 
tion of,  n. 

Tanaquil,  wife  of  Tarquin,  42  ; 
strategy  of,  48. 

Tannetum,  district  near  the  Po, 
256  ;  Manlius  encamps  at,  256. 

Tarentum,  modern  Tarranto,  243 ; 
revolts  to  Hannibal,  354  ;  nobles 
from,  come  to  Hannibal,  422. 

Tarpeia,  tradition  of,  14. 

Tarpeius,  Spurius,  commander  of 
the  Roman  citadel,  14. 

Tarpeius,  Spurius,  consul,  185  ; 
sent  as  an  ambassador  to  the 
camp  on  the  Aventine  after  the 
murder  of  Verginia,  205  ;  patri- 
cian, elected  tribune,  222. 

Tarquinii,  a  city,  41. 

Tarquinii,  Lucius  and  Arruns,  mar- 
ried to  the  daughters  of  Servius, 
50 ;  Titus  and  Arruns,  sent  by 
their  father  to  consult  the  Delphi- 
an oracle,  65  ;  are  banished,  70, 

74- 

Tarquinius,  Arruns,  brother  of  Tar- 
quinius  Priscus,  41. 

Tarquinius,  Arruns,  son  of  Tar- 
quinius Priscus,  married  to  Tul- 
lia,  50 ;  murdered  by  his  wife 
Tullia,  54,  55. 

Tarquinius,  Arruns,  son  of  Tar- 
quinius Superbus,  his  death  in 
battle,  79  ;  sent  by  his  father  to 
consult  the  oracle  at  Delphi,  65. 

Tarquinius,  Lucius,  Collatinus,  son 
of  Egerius,  husband  of  Lucretia, 
67  ;  with  Brutus  obtains  the  ban- 
ishment of  the  kings,  69,  70 ; 
elected  consul,  71 ;  dissatisfaction 
of  the  people  with,  73  ;  goes  into 
voluntary  exile  at  the  request  of 
the  people,  74. 

Tarquinius,  Lucius,  Priscus,  how  he 
came  to  Rome,  41  ;  obtains  the 
rule,  43  ;  adds  to  the  senate,  43  ; 
establishes  the  Circus  Maximus, 
44 ;  his  wars,  43-46 ;  works  of 
peace  of,  46  ;  assassination  of,  48. 

Tarquinius,  Lucius,  Superbus,  son 
of  Tarquinius  Priscus,  50 ;  mar- 
ries Tullia,  50 ;  marries  Tullia 
the  wife  of  his  brother  Arruns, 
55 ;  seizes  the  rule,  56 ;  causes 
the  murder  of  Servius  Tullius, 
57  ;  surnamed  the  Proud,  57  ;  as- 
sassinates Turnus  Herdonius  at 
an  assembly  of  the  Latins,  58-60  ; 


INDEX 


483 


wars,  61-64 ;  employs  the  people 
on  public  works,  65  ;  sends  colo- 
nists to  Signia  and  Circeii,  65, 
note ;  prodigy  appears  to,  65 ; 
sends  his  two  sons  to  consult  the 
Delphian  oracle,  65  ;  is  banished, 
70 ;  goes  into  exile  at  Caere,  70 ; 
stirs  up  the  Etruscans  against  the 
Romans,  78  ;  goes  into  Tusculum, 
90  ;  dies  at  Cumae,  96. 

Tarquinius,  Sextus,  son  of  Tar- 
quinius  Priscus,  tricks  the  Gabi- 
ans,  62-64 ;  wrongs  Lucretia,  67- 
69  ;  slain  at  Gabii,  70. 

Tarquinius,  Titus,  son  of  Tarquini- 
us Superbus,  sent  by  his  father 
to  Delphi,  65. 

Tarquintus,  Lucius,  master  of  the 
horse,  chosen  by  Cincinnatus,  179. 

Tarracina,  309. 

Tarraco,  Roman  marines  at,  sur- 
prised by  Hasdrubal,  289  ;  Scipio 
in  winter  quarters  at,  289  ;  Publi- 
us  Scipio  arrives  at,  315. 

Tartesii,  a  Spanish  tribe,  at  war 
with  Hasdrubal,  383 ;  surrender 
to  Hasdrubal,  384. 

Tatius,  Titus,  King  of  the  Sabines, 
12  ;  slain  at  Lavinium  by  the  Lau- 
rentines,  16. 

Taurea.     See  Vibellius. 

Taurini,  a  Gallic  tribe,  267. 

Teanum,  381,  390. 

Telesia,  town  in  Samnium,  306 ; 
stormed  by  Fabius,  430. 

Tellenae,  capture  of,  40. 

Tellus,  Temple  of,  120. 

Ten  tables,  the,  ratified  by  the  as- 
sembly, 186. 

Terentilian  law,  proposed,  158  ; 
abandoned,  159  ;  brought  forward 
again,  159. 

Terentilius,  Titus,  Harsa,  tribune, 
proposer  of  the  Terentilian  law, 
158. 

Terentius,  Caius,  Varro,  his  career 
and  character,  320  ;  elected  con- 
sul, 328  ;  reproved  by  Fabius  on 
setting  out  from  the  city,  331  ; 
moves  with  the  army  to  Cannz, 
336  ;  gives  the  signal  to  engage 
contrary  to  the  will  of  his  col- 
league, 337 ;  flees  to  Venusia 
after  Cannae,  341,  344  ;  in  com- 
mand in  Picenum,  456. 

Terentius,  Quintus,  sent  as  envoy 
to  Flaminius  at  Placentia,  291. 


Terminus,  god  of  boundaries,  64. 

Themistus.  plots  with  Andrano- 
dorus,  435  ;  is  killed  at  the  senate- 
house,  436. 

Theodotus,  conspirator  against  Hie- 
ronymus,  415,  431. 

Thraso,  guardian  of  Hieronymus, 
415  ;  falsely  accused  of  treason 
by  Theodotus  and  punished,  415. 

Thrasybulus  of  Miletus,  63,  note. 

Tiber  (Albula),  3. 

Tiberina,  insula,  story  of  the  origin 
of,  76. 

Tiberinus,  son  of  Capetus,  4  ; 
drowned,  4 ;  gives  name  to  Ti- 
ber, 4. 

Tiberius,  son  of  Brutus,  75  ;  joins 
the  conspiracy  with  the  Tarquins, 
75  ;  is  punished  with  death  for 
treason  by  his  father,  77. 

Tibur,  304  ;  army  of  Fabius  assem- 
bles at,  305. 

Ticinus,  river,  Scipio  encamps  at 
the  river,  268  ;  Romans  defeated 
by  Hannibal  at  the,  275. 

Tifata,  range  of  hills  near  Capua, 
occupied  as  a  camp  by  Hannibal, 

395- 

Titienses,  century  of  knights,  en- 
rolled by  Romulus,  16,  44. 

Titinius,  Marcus,  elected  tribune 
after  the  return  from  the  Sacred 
Mount,  209. 

Titus  Tatius,  joint  ruler  with  Rom- 
ulus, 16. 

Titus,  son  of  Brutus,  75  ;  joins  the 
conspiracy  with  the  Tarquins,  75  ; 
is  punished  with  death  for  treason 
by  his  father,  77. 

Titus  Vetusius.     See  Vetusius. 

Trasumennus,  Lake,  Roman  army 
under  Flaminius  entrapped  and 
defeated  by  Hannibal  at  the,  297- 
300 ;  news  of  the  battle  at  Rome, 
301. 

Treason,  punishment  for,  31. 

Trebia,  taken  by  the  Volscians, 
117 ;  Roman  camp  removed  to 
the,  276 ;  defeat  of  the  Romans 
at  the,  282-284. 

Trebius,  Statius,  citizen  of  Compsa, 

355- 
Trebonius,  Lucius,  tribune,  is  sur- 

named  Asper,  222. 
Trebula,  369,  398. 
Tribunes,  first  elected  in  the  comi- 

tia,  141 ;  number  increased  to  ten, 


484 


LIVY'S   ROMAN    HISTORY 


183  ;  military,  ten,  elected  by  the 
army  at  Mount  Aventine,  205  ;  by 
the  army  among  the  Sabines,  206  ; 
elected,  after  the  resignation  of 
the  decemvirs,  209. 

Tricastini,  Gallic  tribe,  Hannibal 
marches  through  their  territory, 
261. 

Tricorii,  a  Gallic  tribe,  261. 

Trincipitinus.  See  Spurius  Lucre- 
tius. 

Triumph,  first  decreed  by  the  peo- 
ple, to  Valerius  and  Horatius, 
220. 

Tullia,  wife  of  Arruns  Tarquin,  af- 
terward of  Lucius  Tarquin,  54  ; 
influences  him  to  usurp  the  king- 
dom, 55,  56 ;  rides  over  the  dead 
body  of  her  father,  57  ;  her  flight 
from  the  city,  70. 

Tullii,  Alban  family  enrolled  among 
the  patricians  by  Tullus,  36. 

Tullius,  Attius,  chief  man  of  the 
Volscians,  113  ;  conspires  with 
Gnseus  Marcius,  113-115  ;  stirs 
up  the  Volscians  to  revolt,  116. 

Tullius,  Manius,  consul,  93. 

Tullus  Hostilius,  king,  25,  26,  27, 
32i  33  >  punishes  the  treachery  of 
Mettius,  34 ;  moves  the  Albans  to 
Rome  and  destroys  their  city,  35  ; 
enrolls  Alban  families  among  the 
patricians,  36  ;  his  palace  on  Cce- 
lian  Mount,  36 ;  defeats  the  Sa- 
bines at  the  wood  Malitiosa,  37  ; 
tragic  death  of,  38. 

Turdetani,  a  Spanish  tribe,  239. 

Turnus,  King  of  the  Rutulians,  2. 

Turnus  Herdonius,  of  Aricia,  58 ; 
harangues  the  Latins,  59  ;  is  as- 
sassinated by  Tarquin,  59,  60. 

Tuscan  Street,  90. 

Tusculans  send  aid  to  Rome,  to  put 
down  the  insurrection  of  slaves 
under  Herdonius,  169. 

Twelve  tables,  the,  engraved  and 
set  up,  213. 

Tycha,  the,  part  of  the  city  of  Syra- 
cuse, 432. 

Ulysses,  58. 
Urian  Hill,  57. 

Uzentini,  Italian  tribe,  revolt  to 
Hannibal,  354. 

Vaccsei,  a  Spanish  tribe,  238. 
Valerius,  Antias,  historian,  154,  393. 


Valerius,  Lucius,  Potitus,  consul, 
143 ;  attacks  the  ^Equans  and 
plunders  their  country,  144 ;  ar- 
raigns the  decemvirs  in  the  sen- 
ate, 192  ;  defends  Icilius  after  the 
murder  of  Verginia,  202  ;  called 
for  by  the  soldiers  on  Mount  Aven- 
tine, 205  ;  sent  as  ambassador  to 
the  Sacred  Mount,  207 ;  elected 
first  consul  after  the  fall  of  the 
decemvirs,  209 ;  sent  against  the 
^Equans,  213  ;  gains  a  rich  vic- 
tory at  Algidum,  218 ;  first  de- 
creed a  triumph  by  the  people, 
220  ;  refuses  re-election  to  the  con- 
sulship, 221. 

Valerius,  Lucius,  quaestor,  120,  and 
note  ;  consul,  121. 

Valerius,  Manius,  son  of  Marcus,  93. 

Valerius,  Marcus,  brother  of  Publi- 
cola,  94  ;  killed,  04. 

Valerius,  Marcus,  Lsevinus,  praetor, 
381  ;  pro-praetor,  in  command  of 
the  fleet  at  Brundisium,  431  ;  re- 
takes Oricum  from  Philip,  452 ; 
carries  on  the  war  against  Mace- 
don,  456. 

Valerius,  Marcus,  son  of  Manius, 
quaestor,  177  ;  consul,  183. 

Valerius,  Marcus,  son  of  Volesus, 
consul,  90 ;  dictator,  106 ;  defeats 
the  Sabines,  107  ;  enters  Rome  in 
triumph,  107  ;  pleads  in  the  sen- 
ate in  behalf  of  the  debtors,  108  ; 
resigns  the  dictatorship,  108  ;  as 
augur,  dies  of  plague,  156. 

Valerius,  Publius,  452. 

Valerius,  Publius,  Flaccus,  envoy 
to  Hannibal  and  to  Carthage, 
240  ;  sent  away  by  Hannibal,  242  ; 
reception  at  Carthage,  242-244 ; 
returns  from  Carthage,  248. 

Valerius,  Publius,  Publicola,  son  of 
Volesus,  68 ;  consul,  74 ;  cele- 
brates his  triumph  over  the  Etrus- 
cans, 79 ;  suspected  by  the  peo- 
ple, 79;  surnamed  Publicola,  80; 
consul  for  the  second  time,  81  ; 
consul  for  the  third  time,  90  ;  con- 
sul for  the  fourth  time,  91  ;  death 

•    of,  91. 

Valerius,  Publius,  Publicola,  con- 
sul, 135  ;  defeats  the  Veientines 
and  Sabines  at  Veii,  136 ;  inter- 
rex,  157  ;  consul,  165  ;  addresses 
the  commons,  167  ;  is  killed  at  the 
recovery  of  the  Capitol,  169. 


INDEX 


485 


Varro,  Caius  Terentius.  See  Te- 
rentius. 

Veientes,  defeated  by  Romulus,  18  ; 
one  hundred  years'  truce  with  the, 
18  ;  war  with  the,  50,  122  ;  threat- 
en Rome,  122  ;  routed  by  Fabius, 
123 ;  defeat  the  Fabii  at  the  Cre- 
mera,  133 ;  granted  forty  years' 
truce  at  their  own  request,  136. 

Veii,  an  Etruscan  city,  17,  note. 

Velia,  Mount,  79. 

Velitrae,  the  modern  Velletri,  107 ; 
taken  from  the  Volscians,  107 ; 
colonists  sent  to,  from  Rome,  107. 

Veneti  (Eneti),  a  nation  of  north- 
eastern Italy,  i. 

Venus  of  Eryx.     See  Eryx. 

Venusia,  341,  344  ;  refugees  at,  after 
Cannae,  344  ;  liberality  of  the  peo- 
ple of,  345. 

Veragri,  Alpine  tribe,  267. 

Vercellius,  397. 

Verginia,  the  story  of  her  abduc- 
tion and  death,  197-202. 

Verginius,  Aulus,  consul,  103,  133  ; 
defeats  the  Etruscans  at  the  Ja- 
niculum,  134  ;  consul,  145  ;  trium- 
Nvir  for  distributing  the  land  at 
Antium,  149. 

Verginius,  Aulus,  tribune,  sum- 
mons Caeso  to  trial,  162. 

Verginius,  Lucius,  father  of  Ver- 
ginia, 197 ;  summoned  to  the 
city,  200 ;  kills  his  daughter  to 
save  her  from  Appius  Claudius, 
202 ;  arrives  at  the  camp,  and 
addresses  the  soldiers,  203-204 ; 
tribune  after  the  return  from  the 
Sacred  Mount,  209 ;  appoints  a 
day  of  trial  for  Appius  Claudius, 
211  ;  remits  the  death  penalty  to 
Marcus  Claudius,  215. 

Verginius,  Opiter,  consul,  92 ;  at- 
tacks Pometia,  92. 

Verginius,  Opiter,  consul,  136. 

Verginius,  Proculus,  consul,  119. 

Verginius,  Publius,  his  opinion 
concerning  the  debtors,  105. 

Verginius,  Spurius,  consul,  183. 

Verginius,  Titus,  Caelimontanus, 
consul,  222. 

Verginius,  Titus,  Rutilus,  augur, 
dies  of  the  plague,  156. 

Vestal  Virgins,  punishment  for  un- 
chastity,  4,  note  ;  priesthood  de- 
rived from  Alba,  23  ;  provided  for 
by  Numa,  23. 


Veturia,  mother  of  Gnaeus  Marcius 
Coriolanus,  117;  her  mission  to 
the  enemy,  118  ;  and  speech  to 
her  son,  118. 

Veturius,  Gaius,  consul,  183 ;  day 
of  trial  appointed  for,  183  ;  tried 
and  condemned,  184  ;  augur,  184. 

Veturius,  Lucius,  elected  to  the  first 
college  of  decemvirs,  185. 

Veturius,  Lucius,  Philo,  appointed 
dictator  for  holding  consular  elec- 
tion, 326  ;  dictatorship  decided  il- 
legal, 326. 

Veturius  (or  Vetusius),  Titus,  Gemi- 
nus,  consul,  157  ;  routs  the  Vol- 
scian  invaders,  157;  granted  an 
ovation,  159. 

Vetusius,  Gaius,  consul,  93. 

Vetusius,  Titus,  consul,  103. 

Via  Sacra,  89. 

Vibellius,  Cerrinus,  Taurea,  a  fa- 
mous Campanian  soldier,  his  con- 
test with  Asellus,  406. 

Vibo,  Carthaginian  fleet  harass  the 
territory  around,  279. 

Vica  Pota,  Temple  of,  80. 

Victory,  statue  of,  sent  by  Hiero  to 
Rome,  329  ;  placed  in  the  Temple 
of  Jupiter  Capitolinus,  330. 

Victory,  Mount,  in  Spain,  Roman 
and  Carthaginian  armies  at,  454. 

Victumviae,  attacked  by  Hannibal, 
285  ;  surrenders,  286. 

Villius,  Appius,  elected  tribune  after 
the  return  from  the  Sacred  Mount, 
209. 

Viminal  Hill,  taken  into  the  city,  52. 

Vindicius,  77. 

Vindicta,  traditional  origin  of  the 
term,  77,  note. 

Virginius,  Titus,  consul,  129. 

Viridomarus,  chief  of  the  Insubrian 
Gauls,  13. 

Virrius,  Vibius,  Campanian  envoy 
sent  to  Rome  after  Cannae,  360. 

Vismaro,    Gallic    chief,    his    death, 

455- 

Vitellia,  taken  by  the  Volscians,  117. 

Vitellii,  conspirators  with  the  am- 
bassadors from  Tarquin,  75. 

Vocontii.  a  Gallic  tribe,  Hannibal 
marches  through  their  territory, 
261. 

Volcae,  powerful  Gallic  tribe,  257 ; 
oppose  Hannibal's  passage  of  the 
Rhone,  257-258  ;  are  repulsed  by 
a  stratagem,  258. 


486 


LIVY'S   ROMAN   HISTORY 


Volciani,  a  Spanish  tribe,  251  ;  their 
answer  to  the  Roman  ambassa- 
dors, 251. 

Volero  Publilius.     See  Publilius. 

Volesus,  93. 

Volscians,  61,  96 ;  defeated  and  cut 
to  pieces  at  Pometia,  101  ;  de- 
feated at  Velitrae,  106,  107  ;  driven 
from  the  public  games  at  the  in- 
stigation of  Attius  Tullius,  115  ; 
revolt  under  Tullius  and  Marcius, 
116. 

Volscius,  Marcus,  Fictor,  testifies 
against  Ca^so,  163 ;  day  of  trial 
for,  appointed,  176 ;  condemned 
and  sent  into  exile  at  Lavinium, 
182. 

Volumnia,  wife  of  Gnaeus  Marcius 
Coriolanus,  117  ;  goes  to  the  camp 
of  the  Volscians,  118. 

Volumnius,  Publius,  consul,  159, 
169 ;  ambassador  to  the  JEquaxis 
at  Algidum,  177. 

Vulcan,  isle  of,  Carthaginian  ships 
at  the,  277. 


Vulcan,  spoils  burned  as  a  vow  to, 

405- 

Vulturnus,  the  river,  307. 

Vulturnus,  wind  called,  336  ;  disad- 
vantageous to  the  Romans  in  the 
battle  of  Cannae,  338. 

White  Camp,  scene  of  the  death  of 

Hamilcar,  453. 
Wicked  Street,  the,  57. 

Xenophanes,  head  of  the  embassy 
from  Philip  to  Hannibal,  392 ; 
taken  prisoner  by  the  Roman 
fleet,  393. 

Year,  the,  divided  by  Numa,  23. 

Zacynthus,  island  of,  240. 

Zoippus,  son-in-law  of  Hiero  and 
guardian  of  Hieronymus,  414  ; 
sent  as  an  envoy  to  Ptolemy,  goes 
into  voluntary  exile,  437. 

Zopyrus,  63,  note. 


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